Maize in Bangladesh: White maize gains popularity among Bandarban hill-farmers
Maize in Bangladesh: White maize gains popularity among Bandarban hill-farmers
Maize in Bangladesh: White maize gains popularity among Bandarban hill-farmers
Prof. Dr. Md. Jafar Ullah
The hilly area in Bangladesh locates in the southeast stretching along the east to northeast. Bandarban is one of the three hill districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) constituting about 9% of the total area of Bangladesh (55000 sq. miles) and 34% of the CHT. Hill people grow low productive local races of maize for centuries which are very low production. Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University has been conducting a project in partnership with WRC, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, and Agrarian Research Foundation in different districts of varying ecological conditions including Bandarban hill district wherein the project activities are being implemented by ARF using funds from Krishi Gobeshona Foundation. The objective of the project is to introduce white maize for human consumption in Bangladesh. The project is now at the halfway stage and by this time it has been noticed that Bandarban farmers are being motivated in adopting improved varieties of white maize replacing their traditional ones. We expect that such an approach would be able to help produce more food in the area and contribute towards strengthening food security approaches.
Most of the local varieties of maize cultivated at hills for centuries are much longer bearing cobs on the top of the shoot (Plate 1) than the modern ones (Plate 2). Again most of the local varieties bear more than one cob but seldom fill more than one to two cobs per plant (Plate 3). As such local cultivars’ yield productivity is either around one to 4 t/ha depending on the development, grain filling condition, size and number of cobs per plant (Plate 4-6).
Plate 1: Local varieties bearing more than one cobs per plant at the top of the plant (Photo by author)
Plate 2: Modern varieties bearing one or two cobs at sixth to eighth node above the ground
Plate 3: Local varieties bearing many cobs per plant can not nourish all of them
Plate 4: Two developed cobs out of four (Photo by the author)
Plate 5: Three developed cobs out of five (Photo by the author)
Plate 6: One developed cobs out of three (Photo by the author)
Plate 7: Local hill people are used to eating boiled maize grains on cob (Photo by Thwi Mong)
Hill people are used to eat fresh boiled grains on cob (Plate 7). Although they live on mainly rice staple, maize grain is also consumed as food when rice grains run off. When interviewed according to their opinion, local maize grains are more tasty than the modern yellow ones which are chaffy and tasteless. At present the yellow maize is grown in 350 thousands hectare of land in Bangladesh producing 2.3 million metric tons most of which is used as fodder to meet feed demands for livestock, poultry and fish (Baral, 2016). Very small portion of yellow maize is consumed by human either as dry grain roasted (pop corn) or fresh cobs roasted on fire.
Bangladesh is an agro-based country with a total area of 14.7 million hectare of terrestrial area of which almost 63% area is arable. The main staple crop is rice which can be grown three time a year on the same land. In total, it covers 11.45 million ha totaling in three seasons. Rice grown in summer season is known as aus rice, while sown in rainy season is known as aman rice and if sown in winter season is known as boro rice. Three types of rice amount total production of 34.5 million metric tons per year (new year target 38 mil m ton). The second staple is wheat grown in an area of 450 thousand hectare with production of 1.35 million m tons of grains. Current cropping intensity of Bangladesh is 183% (Bangladeshdeltaplan 2100, 2015) although there are report of nearing 198% .
Bangladesh produces 130 milllion metric tons of food from rice, wheat, maize and potato (92 million tons) although the grown yellow maize is not consumed by Bangladeshi people. And by doing so it claims self sufficiency in food production for its 160 million people. Experts say, this trend of food production will continue if the supply of production-inputs along with continued efforts for developing high yielding varieties are continued.
However, there are reports saying that world food demands by 2050 could be doubled (slideplayer. com, 2016) to cope with ongoing population growth of the world (https:// populationpyramid. net/ Bangladesh /2050/). If such fact becomes true, Bangladesh may also need to double its food production by 2050 for its projected population of over 202 millions (populationpyramid. Net /bangladesh/2050). Due to the global climate- change scenario it may be forecasted that the currently cultivated varieties of different crops may not perform well under the adverse situation and from this point of view Bangladesh’s food demand might not be met from growing only rice and wheat. Genetically these two crops are C3 species. At present the average yields from using even hybrid rice and wheat are 4.751 and 3.031 t/ha respectively; and that of maize is 6.980 t/ha (BBS, 2015). Maize is a C4 crop having almost two fold higher yield potentials as compared to rice and wheat. It is speculated that Bangladesh’s present food production trend may not cope with its ever increasing population trend. So, it is urgent to find out an alternative cereal crop to meet up the starch demand at or after 2050. It could be the maize which could supplement to the governmental approach towards sustaining current food production trend in Bangladesh.
Moreover, maize contains more protein than rice. The protein content in Yellow and white maize varies from 6.9-10.4% and 6.6 – 10.9% respectively on dry matter basis and due to increasedf use, white maize’s acreage had been increasing word wide since 1987 at the rate of over 4.1% per year (FAO,1997).
In Bangladesh, among the maize cultivars, local ones are very low productive (1.0-4 t/ha) which the hill people consume from centuries. The currently grown hybrid yellow maize is almost solely used as feed material for poultry, cattle and fish. Bangladeshi people could not be habituated using yellow maize as one the of staple foods like wheat and rice even after over 30 years of its inception in Bangladesh. This might be attributed to the unsuitability of its flour (more husky or chaffy) to make ruti (tortilla) or parota (oil-fried thick tortilla) which the Bangladeshi people are used to and prefer much. White maize flour on the other hand, although does not contain gluten like yellow maize (constituent in grains that makes the flour sticky when mixed with water) is not chaffy and is suitable to make ‘ruti’ or ‘parota’ (Plate 8 and 9). Bangladeshi consumers especially of urban and rural service holders have been making ‘ruti’ and ‘parota, for decades from wheat flour which contains gluten.
Plate 8: Ruti made of white maize flour. Bangladeshis are used to eat ruti made of wheat flour (Photo by Quamruzzaman)
Plate 9 Parota made of white maize flour. Ruti is thin but parota is thick and fried in oil (Photo by Quamruzzaman)
Even there is also a variation in the choice of the colour of the flour among the consumers. Bangladeshi people prefer white flour than the brown ones. The colour of white maize flour is whiter than the yellow one. Worldwide, the flour of white maize is more preferred for human consumption compared to the yellow maize and for this reason price of white maize is much higher than the yellow maize in the world market (FAO, 1997).
Plate 10: Hill people consume boiled grains on cob. Photograph shows selling both boiled (lower brown coloured) and fresh cobs (Upper green cobs in front of customers, photo by Thwi Mong).
Wheat production area in Bangladesh is being shrunken gradually due to its gradual reduction in its yield productivity. This has been attributed to the increased temperature at the reproductive period due to ongoing climate change impact.
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) so far released 11 yellow maize varieties and two white maize strains. Yellow ones are being cultivated by the farmers throughout the country although these varieties are facing severe competition with the imported exotic ones. The recently released two new white maize varieties are not yet evaluated in the farmers field.
To overcome the adverse high temperature, the organization recently released some late season wheat varieties which can either tolerate or escape high temperature during the reproductive stage. Even though, their yields are not comparable to those of the maize .
To meet up the food demand at or after 2050 Bangladesh needs adopting possible approaches to have good variety(ies) of maize suitable for human consumption. Approaches are also needed to innovate suitable maize food products which Bangladeshi consumers are used to. Upon this realization, Krishi Gobeshona Foundation (KGF) has planned and launched a project so that such objectives are met to face the food supply challenge of 2050. Under this project some exotic varieties were imported and are being evaluated in six districts including Bandarban hill using the funds of KGF. Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University in coordination with the Agrarian Research Foundation (ARF) and WRC of BARI is implementing the project wherein the Bandarban site has been being implemented by the ARF since June, 2015 .
Plate 11: A panoramic view of one of Bandarban hills in Bangladesh (Photo by Thwi Mong)
Bandarban is one of the three districts of Chittagong hill tracts in the south-east where farmers practice ‘jhum’ cropping system along with orchard and forestry (Plate 11). In this system at the onset of rain, hill farmers either cut or make fire on standing plants or weeds and a number of crop’s seeds are dibbled together at the same place or even in a same hole (dibble) in rainy season (Plate 12). They use no other inputs and so the sown crop suffers from nutrient deficiency giving marginal level of yield depending on the existing soil fertility and moisture.
Plate 12.1
Plate 12.2
Plate 12.1 & 12.2: On hills, maize is cultivated mixed with rice, sesame, cotton, banana, cucumber (marma) and other crops in rainy season, the system is known as ‘jhum’ (photo by author)
Most of the crops in the jhum system are confronted with malnutrition and; water and other biotic stresses. The crops mature one after another and so farmers have to harvest them individually by hands bearing a bamboo-made basket on the back (front page picture).
Bandarban hills acquire cropping environment only in rainy season, because in winter there occurs continuous drought causing crops to suffer from mild to acute water shortage for six to eight months as there is no irrigation facility. In the vallies, crops can be grown both in summer and winter as irrigation can be made from fountains or riverlets locally called ‘jhara’.
In Bandarban, maize is the main cereal crop after rice from which hill people get starchy food. In the jhum system, rice constitutes major areas of hill excepting orchard or forest (Plate 13).
Plate 13: Rice is the main cereal crop in a jhum system of Bandarban hill farmers. In the upper photo the yellow patch represents ripe crop. Photo above is a close view from another hill (photo by Thwi Mong)
From centuries they consume boiled grains of maize harvesting fresh cobs at the hard dough growth stage of the crop. Before incepting the aforesaid project at Bandarban they used to eat the cobs of local races which are almost one third in size (Plate 15) compared to the introduced white maize’s cobs with an active length of cobs over 15 cm (Plate 14). Accordingly in the market the price of the larger white maize cobs is much higher than that of the local ones contributing to increase the income of the hill farmers.
Plate 14: Hybrid White maize cobs (largest and average size)
Plate 15: Local maize cobs grown at hills (largest and average size)
Having observed satisfactory yield performance (almost three fold of the local ones) and taste of the introduced white maize cobs, hill people are now being motivated to growing white maize both in the jhum and vallies (Plate 16 and 17).
Plate 16: Demonstration plot of ARF white maize in the ‘Jhum’ system at one of the Bandarban hills in rainy season (June-August) 2016– Photo by Thwi mong
Plate 17: Hill farmers nursing a white maize crop grown in a valley of Bandarban in summer, 2016 (photo by Thwi Mong)
However, white maize grown in the project areas are exotic and hybrids in genetic make up which poses the problem of procuring seeds for the next season by the farmers from their own crop. This may create threat making a complete failure of sustaining the benefits achieved from the aforesaid project after the project activities are terminated.
But we have adopted some optimistic approaches to involve seed traders in importing and observing the performance of their strains so that they can assume farmer’s attitude towards selecting the good varieties and make arrangement to continue exporting seed for future supply to the farmers. Further, CIMMYT has kindly supplied us several white maize lines to test in Bangladesh and after having finished the trials we may expect to have one or more varieties suitable for both cultivation as well as for seed production. BARI’s recently released two white maize are hybrids which need to be thoroughly evaluated along with adopting organizational approaches so that requisite amounts of seeds of white maize can be supplied to the farmers provided the yield performance of these two varieties becomes better over the exotic ones.
Author:
Professor at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University
Executive Director at Agrarian Research Foundation (a non profit organization)
Coordinator : Collection, evaluation and introduction of white maize for human consumption in Bangladesh’ Project funded by Krishi Gobeshona Foundation, BARC campus, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
E-mail: jafarullahsau@gmail.com
Reference
Baral, B. 2016. Agricultural market information system (AMIS) in Bangladesh. Asia and Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics. 26th Session, Thimpu, Bhutan, 15-19 February, 2016.
Bangladeshdelta plan 2100. 2015. Agriculture and Food Security – Baseline Study, 2015. BANGLADESH DELTA PLAN 2100. FORMULATION PROJECT. General Economics Division Planning Commission Government of Bangladesh. www.bangladeshdeltaplan2100.org
Slideplayer.com/9465523, 2016. The Developing Countries’ Emerging Role in the Global Market. Robert L. Thompson, Chairman International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council 24 May Presentation transcript
BBS. 2015. Yearbook of Agricultural Statistics-2015, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) Statistics and Informatics Division (SID) Ministry of Planning Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
FAO. 1997. White Maize: a Traditional Food Grain in Developing Countries. FAO Corporate Document Repository, Economic and Social Development Department, FAO, Rome, Italy.
The hilly area in Bangladesh locates in the southeast stretching along the east to northeast. Bandarban is one of the three hill districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) constituting about 9% of the total area of Bangladesh (55000 sq. miles) and 34% of the CHT. Hill people grow low productive local races of maize for centuries which are very low production. Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University has been conducting a project in partnership with WRC, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, and Agrarian Research Foundation in different districts of varying ecological conditions including Bandarban hill district wherein the project activities are being implemented by ARF using funds from Krishi Gobeshona Foundation. The objective of the project is to introduce white maize for human consumption in Bangladesh. The project is now at the halfway stage and by this time it has been noticed that Bandarban farmers are being motivated in adopting improved varieties of white maize replacing their traditional ones. We expect that such an approach would be able to help produce more food in the area and contribute towards strengthening food security approaches.
Most of the local varieties of maize cultivated at hills for centuries are much longer bearing cobs on the top of the shoot (Plate 1) than the modern ones (Plate 2). Again most of the local varieties bear more than one cob but seldom fill more than one to two cobs per plant (Plate 3). As such local cultivars’ yield productivity is either around one to 4 t/ha depending on the development, grain filling condition, size and number of cobs per plant (Plate 4-6).
Plate 1: Local varieties bearing more than one cobs per plant at the top of the plant (Photo by author)
Plate 2: Modern varieties bearing one or two cobs at sixth to eighth node above the ground
Plate 3: Local varieties bearing many cobs per plant can not nourish all of them
Plate 4: Two developed cobs out of four (Photo by the author)
Plate 5: Three developed cobs out of five (Photo by the author)
Plate 6: One developed cobs out of three (Photo by the author)
Plate 7: Local hill people are used to eating boiled maize grains on cob (Photo by Thwi Mong)
Hill people are used to eat fresh boiled grains on cob (Plate 7). Although they live on mainly rice staple, maize grain is also consumed as food when rice grains run off. When interviewed according to their opinion, local maize grains are more tasty than the modern yellow ones which are chaffy and tasteless. At present the yellow maize is grown in 350 thousands hectare of land in Bangladesh producing 2.3 million metric tons most of which is used as fodder to meet feed demands for livestock, poultry and fish (Baral, 2016). Very small portion of yellow maize is consumed by human either as dry grain roasted (pop corn) or fresh cobs roasted on fire.
Bangladesh is an agro-based country with a total area of 14.7 million hectare of terrestrial area of which almost 63% area is arable. The main staple crop is rice which can be grown three time a year on the same land. In total, it covers 11.45 million ha totaling in three seasons. Rice grown in summer season is known as aus rice, while sown in rainy season is known as aman rice and if sown in winter season is known as boro rice. Three types of rice amount total production of 34.5 million metric tons per year (new year target 38 mil m ton). The second staple is wheat grown in an area of 450 thousand hectare with production of 1.35 million m tons of grains. Current cropping intensity of Bangladesh is 183% (Bangladeshdeltaplan 2100, 2015) although there are report of nearing 198% .
Bangladesh produces 130 milllion metric tons of food from rice, wheat, maize and potato (92 million tons) although the grown yellow maize is not consumed by Bangladeshi people. And by doing so it claims self sufficiency in food production for its 160 million people. Experts say, this trend of food production will continue if the supply of production-inputs along with continued efforts for developing high yielding varieties are continued.
However, there are reports saying that world food demands by 2050 could be doubled (slideplayer. com, 2016) to cope with ongoing population growth of the world (https:// populationpyramid. net/ Bangladesh /2050/). If such fact becomes true, Bangladesh may also need to double its food production by 2050 for its projected population of over 202 millions (populationpyramid. Net /bangladesh/2050). Due to the global climate- change scenario it may be forecasted that the currently cultivated varieties of different crops may not perform well under the adverse situation and from this point of view Bangladesh’s food demand might not be met from growing only rice and wheat. Genetically these two crops are C3 species. At present the average yields from using even hybrid rice and wheat are 4.751 and 3.031 t/ha respectively; and that of maize is 6.980 t/ha (BBS, 2015). Maize is a C4 crop having almost two fold higher yield potentials as compared to rice and wheat. It is speculated that Bangladesh’s present food production trend may not cope with its ever increasing population trend. So, it is urgent to find out an alternative cereal crop to meet up the starch demand at or after 2050. It could be the maize which could supplement to the governmental approach towards sustaining current food production trend in Bangladesh.
Moreover, maize contains more protein than rice. The protein content in Yellow and white maize varies from 6.9-10.4% and 6.6 – 10.9% respectively on dry matter basis and due to increasedf use, white maize’s acreage had been increasing word wide since 1987 at the rate of over 4.1% per year (FAO,1997).
In Bangladesh, among the maize cultivars, local ones are very low productive (1.0-4 t/ha) which the hill people consume from centuries. The currently grown hybrid yellow maize is almost solely used as feed material for poultry, cattle and fish. Bangladeshi people could not be habituated using yellow maize as one the of staple foods like wheat and rice even after over 30 years of its inception in Bangladesh. This might be attributed to the unsuitability of its flour (more husky or chaffy) to make ruti (tortilla) or parota (oil-fried thick tortilla) which the Bangladeshi people are used to and prefer much. White maize flour on the other hand, although does not contain gluten like yellow maize (constituent in grains that makes the flour sticky when mixed with water) is not chaffy and is suitable to make ‘ruti’ or ‘parota’ (Plate 8 and 9). Bangladeshi consumers especially of urban and rural service holders have been making ‘ruti’ and ‘parota, for decades from wheat flour which contains gluten.
Plate 8: Ruti made of white maize flour. Bangladeshis are used to eat ruti made of wheat flour (Photo by Quamruzzaman)
Plate 9 Parota made of white maize flour. Ruti is thin but parota is thick and fried in oil (Photo by Quamruzzaman)
Even there is also a variation in the choice of the colour of the flour among the consumers. Bangladeshi people prefer white flour than the brown ones. The colour of white maize flour is whiter than the yellow one. Worldwide, the flour of white maize is more preferred for human consumption compared to the yellow maize and for this reason price of white maize is much higher than the yellow maize in the world market (FAO, 1997).
Plate 10: Hill people consume boiled grains on cob. Photograph shows selling both boiled (lower brown coloured) and fresh cobs (Upper green cobs in front of customers, photo by Thwi Mong).
Wheat production area in Bangladesh is being shrunken gradually due to its gradual reduction in its yield productivity. This has been attributed to the increased temperature at the reproductive period due to ongoing climate change impact.
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) so far released 11 yellow maize varieties and two white maize strains. Yellow ones are being cultivated by the farmers throughout the country although these varieties are facing severe competition with the imported exotic ones. The recently released two new white maize varieties are not yet evaluated in the farmers field.
To overcome the adverse high temperature, the organization recently released some late season wheat varieties which can either tolerate or escape high temperature during the reproductive stage. Even though, their yields are not comparable to those of the maize .
To meet up the food demand at or after 2050 Bangladesh needs adopting possible approaches to have good variety(ies) of maize suitable for human consumption. Approaches are also needed to innovate suitable maize food products which Bangladeshi consumers are used to. Upon this realization, Krishi Gobeshona Foundation (KGF) has planned and launched a project so that such objectives are met to face the food supply challenge of 2050. Under this project some exotic varieties were imported and are being evaluated in six districts including Bandarban hill using the funds of KGF. Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University in coordination with the Agrarian Research Foundation (ARF) and WRC of BARI is implementing the project wherein the Bandarban site has been being implemented by the ARF since June, 2015 .
Plate 11: A panoramic view of one of Bandarban hills in Bangladesh (Photo by Thwi Mong)
Bandarban is one of the three districts of Chittagong hill tracts in the south-east where farmers practice ‘jhum’ cropping system along with orchard and forestry (Plate 11). In this system at the onset of rain, hill farmers either cut or make fire on standing plants or weeds and a number of crop’s seeds are dibbled together at the same place or even in a same hole (dibble) in rainy season (Plate 12). They use no other inputs and so the sown crop suffers from nutrient deficiency giving marginal level of yield depending on the existing soil fertility and moisture.
Plate 12.1
Plate 12.2
Plate 12.1 & 12.2: On hills, maize is cultivated mixed with rice, sesame, cotton, banana, cucumber (marma) and other crops in rainy season, the system is known as ‘jhum’ (photo by author)
Most of the crops in the jhum system are confronted with malnutrition and; water and other biotic stresses. The crops mature one after another and so farmers have to harvest them individually by hands bearing a bamboo-made basket on the back (front page picture).
Bandarban hills acquire cropping environment only in rainy season, because in winter there occurs continuous drought causing crops to suffer from mild to acute water shortage for six to eight months as there is no irrigation facility. In the vallies, crops can be grown both in summer and winter as irrigation can be made from fountains or riverlets locally called ‘jhara’.
In Bandarban, maize is the main cereal crop after rice from which hill people get starchy food. In the jhum system, rice constitutes major areas of hill excepting orchard or forest (Plate 13).
Plate 13: Rice is the main cereal crop in a jhum system of Bandarban hill farmers. In the upper photo the yellow patch represents ripe crop. Photo above is a close view from another hill (photo by Thwi Mong)
From centuries they consume boiled grains of maize harvesting fresh cobs at the hard dough growth stage of the crop. Before incepting the aforesaid project at Bandarban they used to eat the cobs of local races which are almost one third in size (Plate 15) compared to the introduced white maize’s cobs with an active length of cobs over 15 cm (Plate 14). Accordingly in the market the price of the larger white maize cobs is much higher than that of the local ones contributing to increase the income of the hill farmers.
Plate 14: Hybrid White maize cobs (largest and average size)
Plate 15: Local maize cobs grown at hills (largest and average size)
Having observed satisfactory yield performance (almost three fold of the local ones) and taste of the introduced white maize cobs, hill people are now being motivated to growing white maize both in the jhum and vallies (Plate 16 and 17).
Plate 16: Demonstration plot of ARF white maize in the ‘Jhum’ system at one of the Bandarban hills in rainy season (June-August) 2016– Photo by Thwi mong
Plate 17: Hill farmers nursing a white maize crop grown in a valley of Bandarban in summer, 2016 (photo by Thwi Mong)
However, white maize grown in the project areas are exotic and hybrids in genetic make up which poses the problem of procuring seeds for the next season by the farmers from their own crop. This may create threat making a complete failure of sustaining the benefits achieved from the aforesaid project after the project activities are terminated.
But we have adopted some optimistic approaches to involve seed traders in importing and observing the performance of their strains so that they can assume farmer’s attitude towards selecting the good varieties and make arrangement to continue exporting seed for future supply to the farmers. Further, CIMMYT has kindly supplied us several white maize lines to test in Bangladesh and after having finished the trials we may expect to have one or more varieties suitable for both cultivation as well as for seed production. BARI’s recently released two white maize are hybrids which need to be thoroughly evaluated along with adopting organizational approaches so that requisite amounts of seeds of white maize can be supplied to the farmers provided the yield performance of these two varieties becomes better over the exotic ones.
Author:
Professor at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University
Executive Director at Agrarian Research Foundation (a non profit organization)
Coordinator : Collection, evaluation and introduction of white maize for human consumption in Bangladesh’ Project funded by Krishi Gobeshona Foundation, BARC campus, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
E-mail: jafarullahsau@gmail.com
Reference
Baral, B. 2016. Agricultural market information system (AMIS) in Bangladesh. Asia and Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics. 26th Session, Thimpu, Bhutan, 15-19 February, 2016.
Bangladeshdelta plan 2100. 2015. Agriculture and Food Security – Baseline Study, 2015. BANGLADESH DELTA PLAN 2100. FORMULATION PROJECT. General Economics Division Planning Commission Government of Bangladesh. www.bangladeshdeltaplan2100.org
Slideplayer.com/9465523, 2016. The Developing Countries’ Emerging Role in the Global Market. Robert L. Thompson, Chairman International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council 24 May Presentation transcript
BBS. 2015. Yearbook of Agricultural Statistics-2015, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) Statistics and Informatics Division (SID) Ministry of Planning Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
FAO. 1997. White Maize: a Traditional Food Grain in Developing Countries. FAO Corporate Document Repository, Economic and Social Development Department, FAO, Rome, Italy.
