Review of Zea Mays

Maize

There are many cereal plants, but I will talk about Maize in this article. Maize is a cereal plant botanically known as Zea mays. It’s mostly planted during the raining season. If by any means maize germinates during the dry season, it’s as a result of irrigation. I’ve never seen a maize plantation growing when there’s no rain to water it. What inspired me to write about Maize was a maize farm I saw when I visited a friend. The green leafs looked so beautiful, and I couldn’t help, but take pictures.

Maize was not an African food until it was introduced to Nigeria in the 1500s. That was more than 500 years. Since then, it has become one of the most dominant food in Africa. The production of Maize worldwide is 785 trillion tons. The United States as the largest producer takes 42%, while Nigeria tops the African country with 8 billion tons of production.

Is Maize good food?

Both internationally, and locally, Maize is considered very good food. Some take it as vegetables though it’s a grain crop. It’s made up of vitamin A, C, E, FIBRE, CARBOHYDRATE, and some proteins.

Maize can be prepared in many ways

In Nigeria, where I come from, we have many ways of consuming maize which is also called corn.

• Maize can be cooked without removing the grain from the stick and eaten raw. There’s also the roasted version, where the corn would be roasted on hot charcoal and consumed.

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• Grinded maize (Dried one) is prepared in many ways. It’s prepared as “TUWO MASARA”, which is a dominant food in the Northern part of Nigeria. I’m not a northerner, but I've eaten Tuwo several times. Believe me, you would love it if served with your favorite soup.
• A grinded soaked dried maize can be used to make pap, mostly taken as breakfast.

• There’s also the corn pudding. It’s like Moi-Moi made from beans.

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I cannot list all that maize (corn) is used for. What about popcorn? I’m sure corn is consumed differently in every country. Some use it as animal feed as well, so it’s not only consumed by human.

How to plant Maize

I’m not a farmer, but planting maize is very simple that even a baby can slot a piece in the soil. Before planting corn, you must understand that it won't yield ant fruit without water. So I would advise you to plant your maize during the raining season.
These are the steps to follow.

• Get a bare fertile piece of land and make ridges
• Get food dried corn grains
• On the ridges, open up the sand like three inches deep, and slot three or four grains in the soil and cover it. Make sure there is an interval of three to four feet between each corn planted on the ridges.
• Don’t allow weed to kill the maize. Make sure you weed to stop other unwanted plants from sharing the surrounding water with your plant.
• Harvest after 3-4 months and enjoy your corn.

Thanks for reading.