Maize in India: Production Systems, Constraints - AgEcon Search

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1. Introduction
1.1 Background
The last decade of the 20 th century witnessed extensive
economic reforms in India, which in turn saw growing
stocks of surplus wheat and rice. This, however, came at
an associated cost of degradation of both soil and water
resources. At the global level, prices of these two
leading cereals declined sharply, inducing the farming
community to partly diversify agriculture to sustain and
augment farm income and improve the quality of soil
and water resources.
Maize is considered a promising option for diversifying
agriculture in upland areas of India. It now ranks as the
third most important food grain crop in India. The
maize area has slowly expanded over the past few
years to about 6.2 million ha (3.4% of the gross
cropped area) in 1999/2000. Paroda and Kumar (2000)
predicted that this area would grow further to meet
future food, feed, and other demands, especially in
view of the booming livestock and poultry producing
sectors in the country. Since opportunities are limited
for further expansion of maize area, future increases in
maize supply will be achieved through the
intensification and commercialization of current maize
production systems.
The changing global scenario is compelling policymakers
to adhere to the regulations and obligations set
by the World Trade Organization (WTO). The resulting
new economic regime is expected to alter the
economics of existing cropping systems, including
maize, in terms of production, value added, and trade.
The question often raised is how research and
development efforts can efficiently contribute to
intensifying maize production in upland areas while
protecting the interests of poor maize producers. To
answer the question, it is necessary to study and
characterize maize production systems, and future
policy and technology interventions need to be
formulated accordingly. This study attempts to identify
existing maize production constraints and explore
future sources of intensification. More specifically, this
study aims to: (1) characterize maize production
systems in upland areas, (2) assess the historical
performance of maize, (3) identify constraints limiting
maize production, and (4) assess opportunities for
maize intensification in the upland areas of India.
1.2 Characterization of Maize
Production Environments
In India, maize is grown in a wide range of
environments, extending from extreme semi-arid to
sub-humid and humid regions. The crop is also very
popular in the low- and mid-hill areas of the western
and northeastern regions. Broadly, maize cultivation
can be classified into two production environments: (1)
traditional maize growing areas, including Bihar,
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh
(BIMARU), and (2) non-traditional maize areas,
including Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh (KAP). In
traditional areas, the crop is often grown in marginal
eco-regions, primarily as a subsistence crop to meet
food needs. In contrast, maize in the non-traditional
areas is grown for commercial purposes–i.e., mainly to
meet the feed requirements of the booming poultry
sector. Key indicators of development in these two
contrasting production environments are given in Table
1. Low levels of literacy, income, and urbanization
characterize traditional maize growing areas in the
BIMARU states, where a large number of povertyridden
people live. In contrast, the KAP states show low
poverty levels, modest urbanization, and agricultural
income above the national average.
To better understand maize production systems at the
micro-level in traditional and non-traditional areas,
rapid rural appraisal (RRA) surveys were conducted at
selected locations using a three-stage stratified
sampling scheme. During the first stage, three districts
from each state were identified. The selected districts
were among the top maize producing districts and
represented major agro-ecological regions in the state
(Figure 1). These included Begusarai, Munger, and
Siwan in Bihar; Chindwara, Jhabua, and Mandsaur in