Maize

Maize (Zea mays), known across Pakistan as makai, is the third cereal of the country after wheat and rice and the kharif crop that earns the kitchen its makai ki roti and the buffalo its summer green chop. POWO records it as native to central and southwest Mexico through to western Guatemala, now naturalised and farmed worldwide.¹ For a food-forest plot it is the obvious tall annual grass for the monsoon slot.

Where it thrives

Maize runs in all four growing zones — the Punjab plains, Pothohar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa hills and the Sindh coast — with KPK alone supplying roughly half the country’s spring crop and total national maize output running close to 9.5 million tonnes a year.⁵ NC State Extension lists it as needing full sun, fertile well-drained soil and a minimum soil temperature of about 16 degrees Celsius at sowing.² National yields average around 4 tonnes per hectare, among the highest in South Asia,³ driven by hybrid uptake in central Punjab. The crop wants 500 to 800 mm through its 100 to 130 day cycle and will not tolerate waterlogging for more than 48 hours.

Role in the system

Maize sits in the grass stratum as a tall warm-season annual pioneer. In a syntropic alley it is the temporary canopy filler that holds vertical structure from July to October while perennial trees are still small. The classic guild is the three sisters — maize as the pole, common bean as the climber feeding nitrogen, pumpkin as the living mulch — and it transplants cleanly to a Pakistani kharif plot of frans bean, kaddu and makai. Maize is a heavy feeder, so the legume partner is non-negotiable if the bed is to recover for a winter wheat or chickpea crop.

Growing it

Decisions worth getting right. Sow open-pollinated stock such as Agaiti-2002 or Sahiwal-Gold for low-input plots, or hybrids like NARC-released kits and CIMMYT-derived crosses on high-input ground; about 30 percent of Pakistani maize area now runs on hybrids and yield response is steep.³ Sow 20 to 25 kg per hectare in rows 70 to 75 cm apart with 20 to 22 cm in the row, at 4 to 5 cm depth, soon after the first monsoon shower in the plains or in early March for the spring crop. Earth-up at knee-high to anchor the stalk against pre-monsoon winds. Irrigate four to six times — critical at knee-high, tasselling, silking and grain-fill. Stem borer and fall armyworm are the main pests; scout weekly from silking.

What you get

Grain yields of 4 to 6 tonnes per hectare on irrigated land, with a 100 to 130 day cycle. The grain feeds the kitchen as flour, parched corn and sweet-corn cobs, and Feedipedia rates maize as the most valuable energy source among cereals at around 65 percent starch with 9 percent crude protein and good vitamin A content in yellow varieties.⁴ Green chop and stover are heavy summer fodder; one hectare can carry two to three buffalo through the lean months.⁴

Sourcing notes

Pakistan imports more than 85 percent of its hybrid maize seed, so source from registered dealers and check the seal date.³ Plant a legume strip — moong, cowpea or Sesbania — in the same season to balance the nitrogen draw, and never sow maize in a bed that grew sorghum or another grass the previous kharif.

Sources

1. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2024). “Zea mays L.” Plants of the World Online.
2. NC State Extension (2024). “Zea mays (Corn, Indian corn, Maize).” North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox.
3. International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (2014). “New varieties reignite maize production in Pakistan.” CIMMYT News.
4. Feedipedia (2016). “Maize grain.” INRAE-CIRAD-AFZ-FAO.
5. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2024). “GIEWS Country Brief: Pakistan.” FAO Global Information and Early Warning System.