OpenInput support
Farmer Support Initiative
Direct input-cost support aimed at smallholders, delivered through district agriculture offices and paid against verified purchase receipts.
Maize
The highest-yielding cereal per acre, grown in two seasons.
- Season
- Kharif & Rabi
- Sowing
- Jan–Feb / Jul–Aug
- Harvest
- May–Jun / Oct–Nov
- Duration
- ~110 days
Grown in: Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh. Windows are indicative and shift with district, altitude and season.
Overview
Why maize matters
Maize is grown in both spring and autumn cycles and serves food, poultry feed and starch industries. Hybrid seed has lifted per-acre yields well above those of the open-pollinated varieties it replaced.
The only cereal here grown twice in one calendar — and the one least forgiving of a dry week at flowering.
Two crops, one yearGrowing conditions
Climate and soil
Climate
Warm, 21–30 °C. Highly sensitive to moisture stress at tasselling and silking — a few dry days at flowering can cost most of the crop.
Soil
Well-drained, fertile loam rich in organic matter, pH 5.5–7.5. Will not tolerate waterlogging.
Planting & sowing
Spring sowing late January to February; autumn sowing late July to August. Seed rate 8–10 kg per acre of hybrid seed, in rows 75 cm apart with 20 cm between plants.
Irrigation
Six to eight irrigations. Protect knee-high, tasselling, silking and grain-filling stages above all others.
Fertilisation
Approximately 100 kg N, 45 kg P₂O₅ and 40 kg K₂O per acre for hybrids. Apply nitrogen in three splits and include zinc where deficiency is known.
Harvesting
Harvest when husks dry and the grain shows a black layer at the kernel base, generally at 20–25 % moisture. Dry to 13 % for safe storage.
Crop protection
Pests and diseases
Identify first, then treat on threshold. Routine calendar spraying costs money and drives resistance.
Insect pests 4
- Maize stem borer
- Fall armyworm
- Shoot fly
- Termite
Diseases 4
- Maydis leaf blight
- Downy mildew
- Common rust
- Stalk rot
Report a suspected notifiable pest to your district office. Find your office
Related
Support for maize growers
OpenWater & irrigation
Modern Irrigation Programme
Supports the shift from flood irrigation to pressurised systems, with technical design provided by the department’s water management wing.
OpenMechanisation
Agricultural Machinery Support Scheme
Reduces the capital barrier to mechanisation, with a preference for shared-use service models that reach farms too small to own machinery.
Publications
- Wheat Production Guide · Crop guide · PDF
- Rice Cultivation Manual · Crop guide · PDF
- Cotton Crop Management Handbook · Crop guide · PDF
Confirm the dates for your own district.
Sowing windows shift with altitude, canal rotation and the season itself. Your district office has the local figures.