DIFFERENT STATE governments are falling over each other in their haste to get into large-scale public private partnerships to promote hybrid maize in the name of food security. [...] Only 25 percent of maize is consumed as food; the rest goes into poultry feed, animal feed, industrial use, etc. However, maize continues to be classified as a food crop in official statistics — it helps the non-performing agriculture ministry to claim some growth. For seed and agri-chemical companies too, hybrid maize is a major market driver. When the shift to hybrid seed happens in this crop, the demand for pesticides and fertilisers goes up. What’s more, companies like Monsanto are waiting in the wings to bring in herbicide-tolerant genetically modified maize, which would ensure two markets for them — that of herbicides and also of this seed.