Production performance of maize in India : Approaching an inflection point

Maize is the third most important crop after rice and wheat in India in terms of its area coverage and contribution to total food grains production. It is grown in almost all agro-ecological regions, contributing about 22 million tonnes of grain production from about 9 million hectares of land. The production pattern as well as its consumption pattern has dramatically changed in India in the recent past. However, the average crop yield of 2.5 t/ha is still very low as compared to the other Asian countries like Bangladesh (6.8 t/ha), China (5.7 t/ha), Indonesia (4.6 t/ha) and Pakistan (3.8 t/ha) in 2012 (FAOSTAT). This paper has examined the growth and instability in maize production in the major districts of major maize growing States in the country. An attempt has also been made to forecast its production in near and mid-term under different scenarios. The results showed that more than 60 per cent of maize area is observed to be having maize yield less than 2 t/ha. At the same time, huge variability in maize yield between and within the maize growing States was also found. However, the maize yield is estimated to increase little more than 3 t/ha by the year 2020, if the current policy and macro-economic environment continues. It is also expected that the demand for maize in domestic as well as in international market will grow faster than the production growth, creating very good potential for Indian maize in the near future. Therefore, to meet the future growing demand of maize in domestic as well as international market, it is desired to have different growth pathway than the existing trend. To realize that kind of inflection point, India has to gear up its logistics and supply chain to handle the near-double size of the maize output in coming years