Received: 18-06-2014 / Accepted: 01-09-2014
In recent year, maize is gradually becoming a kind of agricultural commodities which aims to reduce poverty for farmers in the Northwest region, especially in the two provinces of Son La and Hoa Binh. The survey results show that income from maize production constitutes a high proportion of the income structure of farm households in this area. However, maize acreage and yield annual area are declining. The farmers in the Northwest now faces major problems such as the shortage of capital for production, the rapid rising input cost, especially maize seeds and fertilizers. In addition, transport systems, storage systems, and the consumption of maize are still low, which are also the major challenges to the developm ent of maize production in this area. Therefore, to develop commodity maize production in the Northwest region, the solutions offered are going to focus on those aspects: the methods to control soil erosion and exhaustion, transportation system development, maize consumption system diversification, technical support and the encouragement of maize storage system construction for farmers, maize varieties research to select the adapted seeds to the ecological conditions, utilizing the organic inputs instead of inorganic fertilizer and finally the preferential policies that Government should have to encourage maize production.