“A special thrust and a separate budgetary allocation should be provisioned for Maize crop, which is an important ‘Industrial crop’ and is also critical for poultry industry. Maize should be seen beyond just an agriculture crop and should be properly linked to various other industries like bio-fuel, pharmaceutical, perfume/cosmetics, and even the multiplexes and shopping malls where pop corn and sweet corn are sold in huge quantity. A Maize Task Force (MTF) can be created with dedicated budgetary allocation and with multidisciplinary expert team of scientists, agri-marketing, experts from pharmaceutical industry, FMCG, Biofuel industry etc. North East can be a hub for maize production and maize based agriculture SMEs. Special Maize based SME incubators can be created.”