Future Strategies for Sweet Corn in India

Presently, in India no hybrid of sweet corn is available. Since only varieties are cultivated, they lack uniformity, which in turn reduces the market value and brings difficulty in cultivation practices like roughing, harvest¬ing etc. Thus there is an urgent need to breed for sweet corn hybrids. In this process it must be kept in mind that utilization of supersweet (Sh-2) gene alone may not be successful proposition because such cultivars will be associated with problem of germination particularly in kharif season. However, while making efforts in developing cultivars it must be borne in mind that for kharif season if at all Sh-2 gene is to be utilized it must be used in combination with sugary and brittle genes. For rabi season double mutants may be used. But such cultivars can exclusively be used for rabi season and adequate care must be taken to assure proper moisture during germination of such cultivars.

In spite of availability of promising varieties of sweet corn in India and potential of the technology, sweet corn is yet to assume popularity in the country. There is very little utilization of sweet corn in regular market. On the other hand, major portion of sweet corn being utilized in hotels and big restaurants are imported. The main reason behind this is nonexistence of appropriate storage and marketing facilities for sweet corn in India. Thus there is an urgent need to develop entrepreneurship to harness the advantages associated with sweet corn. Since sweet corns need to be utilized immediately after harvest, its cultivation should be encouraged in periurban agriculture. Market network must be developed to ensure household availability of sweet corn. This can only be attained with proper market leadership and policy support, which is presently lacking in India.