Maize in Pakistan: Major Abiotic Stresses and their Management

Abstract

To achieve the projected increase in demand of food for the rapidly increasing population of the world, global production of food crops need to be increased on a sustainable rate. This can be accomplished by eliminating all the production constraints to food crops which appear from time to time with changing climate. Maize, being one of the most widely distributed crop of the world has its unique importance in agriculture sector due to its multiple uses as food, feed and in industry. In Pakistan it is the third most important crop after wheat and rice and grown widely. It has been grown as a multipurpose crop for fodder, grain flour and feed. Also, its consumption as raw material for different industries is increasing. Like all other crops, maize production is also threatened by several biotic and abiotic stresses which reduce quantity and quality of the produce. The present review will provide necessary information about status of maize crop in Pakistan. It will also cover several abiotic production constraints and breeding strategies to overcome these constraints for a sustainable agriculture produce