Some fifteen years ago, it was touted as a significant nutritional breakthrough that could be a cheap and natural source of quality protein for the masses. However, Quality Protein Maize (QPM) is yet to deliver on its promise in Indian farmers' fields.

Dr Sain Dass, former head of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's Directorate of Maize Research here, estimates the annual seed production of QPM hybrids at 4,000 quintal, which suffices for planting in just 48,000 acres. That is a fraction of the country's total 20 million-plus acres under maize.

QPM is basically maize having high lysine and tryptophan content. Normal maize is deficient in both these essential amino acids – the building blocks of proteins – while being surplus in two others, leucine and isoleucine. The imbalanced amino acid composition means only around 82 per cent of the protein in the grain gets digested – and of which 45 per cent is retained or “used” by the body for various metabolic functions.

Magic gene

QPM hybrids incorporate an “opaque-2” gene – identified from mutants within maize – which reduces the concentration of prolamine, the dominant protein fraction in regular maize kernels that are high in leucine and isoleucine. As a result, QPMs contain nearly twice as much lysine and tryptophan as in common maize, translating into a protein digestibility of 92 per cent and a biological value of 80 per cent, comparable to the 96 per cent and 86 per cent in milk.

“Moreover, they look and taste like normal maize, with more or less same yields of 6-7 tonnes a hectare,” claimed Dr Dass, who has bred QPM single-cross hybrids such as HQPM-1, HQPM-5 and HQPM-7, using modified opaque-2 germplasm obtained from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre or CIMMYT in Mexico.

So why has QPM, despite all these positives, not really found takers among farmers or even animal feed manufacturers – who stand to gain if it helps reduce their use of costlier protein sources such as soyabean or fish meal? (A broiler chicken typically requires 1.6-1.7 kg of compound feed for every one kg live bird weight, with half of this being maize and the balance comprising protein meal, bran, minerals, vitamins and supplements)

“We would certainly be keen to buy high-lysine maize and even pay a premium for it. But the problem is that the maize we get is in bulk and undifferentiated. There is no segregation between varieties in the market and farmers, too, have little incentive to supply better quality grain,” said Mr Balram Yadav, Managing Director of Godrej Agrovet Ltd, which produces one million tonnes (mt) of poultry, cattle and aqua feed and consumes 0.5 mt of maize every year.

Filling the gaps

According to Dr Dass, the main constraint in QPM taking off is non-availability of seeds for cultivation. And that has to do with the absence of an active seed production programme, which has been the bane of public sector farm research in recent times.

“There is no dearth of good publicly-bred hybrid seed material in maize, be it QPM or normal single-crosses. But these cannot reach the farmer unless we have a strong public-private partnership for their large-scale production and multiplication,” he pointed out.

But why is the private sector not taking the lead itself? “Well, there are intellectual property rights issues, because we would like the hybrids developed in the public sector to be assigned to firms on an exclusive basis. There is no incentive, otherwise, to take up production and marketing of hybrids that are not our own proprietary material,” noted an official from a leading seed company.

Dr Dass felt that the Food Corporation of India should be directed to procure QPM for the public distribution system, with the objective of providing a market for farmers as well as meeting broader nutritional security goals.

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