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Kothapeta, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

Maize (Corn), is of American origin, and after wheat and rice, it is the most important cereal grain in the world. It provides nutrition to both humans (33.3%) and animals (66.6 %). Serves as basic raw material for the production of starch, oil and protein, alcoholic beverages, food sweeteners and more recently fuel. Special crops grown primarily for food include sweet corn and popcorn, although dent, starchy or floury and flint maize are also widely used as food. Flint maize is also used as feed. Immature ordinary corn on the cob either boiled or roasted is widely consumed.

India's maize production fluctuates between 10-14 million tons, with 80-90% of the production being in the khariff season. Major states that contribute in Maize productions are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Around 6.5 million tons (roughly 50 % of total consumption) goes for feed use, primarily for poultry feed. Another 1 million tons of corn is used by the starch industry.

Sorghum is the fifth most important cereal crop in the world after wheat, rice, maize and barley. It is found in the arid and semi arid parts of the world, due to its feature of being extremely drought tolerant. The nutritional value of sorghum is same as of that of corn and that is why it is gaining importance as livestock feed. Sorghum is also used for ethanol production, producing grain alcohol, starch production, production of adhesives and paper other than being used as food and feed.

Sorghum is popularly known as "Jowar" in India. The crop in the country stands at the third place in context of importance after wheat and rice. The grain had been used for consumption of both humans and livestock and also different genes of the plant serve many other important uses. The crop was introduced in India in the first millennium and since then it has been actively cultivated in the subcontinent. The production of sorghum in India reaches up to 9 million metric tons mark each year but last few years have shown a marginal but gradual decline in the production and productivity of the crop. The area under cultivation of the crop too has had a steep decline in the last 15 years i.e. 50% and 25% in the khariff and Rabi season respectively.