Maize is unique among the cereals on account of
its amenability to diverse uses and it has huge
potential in the present era of crop
diversification. India is emerging as one of the
potential baby corn producing countries due to
low cost of production and high demand within
the country. Baby corn is a young finger like
unfertilized cob of maize harvested early within
1-3 days of silk emergence. Baby corn is a good
option for crop diversification and it suits to
peri-urban agriculture. Further, there is a great
potential to earn foreign exchange through
export of fresh/canned baby corn and its
processed products. Another important feature
of baby corn is safe vegetable to eat as it is
almost free from residual effects of pesticides as
the young cob is rapped with husk and well
protected from insect and diseases. Despite
manifold uses of baby corn, very little
information on breeding strategies followed for
RESEARCH ARTICLE
SABRAO J. Breed. Genet. 47 (1) 60-69
61
improvement in baby corn (Chauhan and
Mohan, 2010).