58th Annual Maize Workshop Organized The ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research (IIMR), the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), and the Crop th Improvement Society of India jointly organized the 58 Annual Workshop of AICRP on maize at Ludhiana th during 4-6 April, 2015. Dr. Gurbachan Singh, Chairman, Agricultural Scientists’ Recruitment Board, was the Chief Guest on the occasion. In his address, he stressed that yield gap at village, district, state and national level must be analyzed critically followed by an out-of-box thinking as both are necessary to further augment maize productivity of country. He also advocated to adopt an integrated farming approach and emphasized that efficiency use of water, energy and nutrients needs to be improved in maize to make it more climate-resilient. The guest-of-honour on the occasion, Dr. J.S. Sandhu, Deputy Director General (Crop Sciences), highlighted that hybrid breeding needs greater focus, and research on suitable maize germplasm with tolerance to both drought and water-logging conditions is required. Dr. B.S. Dhillon, Vice-Chancellor, PAU presided over the inaugural function. In his presidential address, he traced the history of maize breeding and called upon for greater infusion of science in maize research. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. I.S. Solanki, Assistant Director General (FFC), ICAR, pointed out that maximum benefit from the hybrid technology is seen in maize. Dr. A.S. Khehra, former Vice- Chancellor, PAU and Dr. S.K. Sharma, Chairman, Research Advisory Committee, IIMR also addressed the participants of the workshop. Dr. O.P. Yadav, Director, IIMR reviewed the maize improvement work carried out during 2014-15 and informed that maize recorded the highest production of 24.35 million tonnes during 2014-15 that has been made possible through flagship role of AICRP on maize. During last year, 17 new hybrids and varieties were released for different states of country. During the workshop, Dr. A.S. Khehra, Former Vice-Chancellor and Dr. B.M. Prasanna, Maize Geneticist were felicitated for their contributions to maize research. Earlier, Dr. Balwinder Singh, Director (Research), PAU welcomed the dignitaries and the participants. More than 200 delegates from different ICAR institutes, SAUs, CIMMYT, BISA, government departments and seed industry participated in this workshop. Dr. J.S. Chawla, Organizing Secretary of the workshop proposed the vote of thanks.