Maize is a major cereal crop for both human and livestock nutrition, worldwide. With its high content of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and some of important vitamins and minerals, maize acquired a well deserved reputation as a poor man’s nutria-cereal. Several million people, particularly in the developing countries, derive their protein and calorie requirements from maize. Animal protein, of course being of higher quality, is scarce and expensive, thereby unavailable to a vast sector of the population. Therefore, this vast segment (human population) depends upon cereals for their nutrition and livelihood. Protein from cereals including normal maize, have poor nutritional value because of reduced content of essential amino-acids such as lysine and tryptophan leading to harmful consequences such as growth retardation, protein energy mal-nutrition, anemia, pellagra, free radical damage etc. As a consequence, the use of maize as food is decreasing day by day among health conscious people.

The complex nature of these problems posed a formidable challenge before the agricultural scientists whose research priority always remain enhancement of the nutritional status of crops.

This challenge was gladly accepted by two distinguished scientists of CIMMYT, Mexico, Dr. S. K. Vasal and Dr. Evangelina Villegas whose painstaking efforts for a period of 3 decades led to development of Quality Protein Maize (QPM) with hard kernel, good taste and other consumer favouring characteristics. This work is globally recognized as a step towards nutritional security for the poor. Dr. Vasal and Dr. Evangelina Villegas were awarded world food prize for their path breaking research in this direction.

QPM research and development efforts appropriately spread from Mexico to Central and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia. India also benefited with such germplasm and developed its first QPM composite variety ‘Shakti–1’ released in 1997 for commercial cultivation across the country.

In 1998, the Rajendra Agricultural University (RAU) stepped ahead with further R & D towards the development of QPM variety and popularization of QPM as food. Research priorities were fixed by the university both for varietals development and product development through the process of value addition by way of value chain management. The breeding programme on QPM was focused at AICRP Centre on Maize located at Tirhut College of Agriculture, Dholi (MUzaffarpur) whereas value addition activities were carried out at the Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Home Science, Pusa.

As of today, RAU has marched ahead in both areas and has its own success story upon QPM. A production-consumption chain has been established only with QPM and the products developed by the university are being manufactured and marketed by various enterprises putting a win to win situation for every stakeholder whether a scientist, a seed grower, a cultivator, a manufacturer, a marketing personnel or the consumers.

The story with different activities is being enumerated below for motivation to others.