Economic Analysis and Dynamics of Maize cultivation in Jammu Region of JandK

Abstract

newline The present study was conducted in Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir where three districts, Rajouri, Udhampur and Poonch were purposely selected for studying the Maize crop. The proposed study adopted Purposive Sampling technique for the selection of districts based on higher production of the crop under study. However the blocks, villages, producers and intermediaries were selected randomly. The main concentration of Maize in terms of production was found in Rajouri (137.275 thousand MT), Udhampur (71.068 thousand MT) and Poonch (67.577 thousand MT) districts (Directorate of Agriculture, 2018). A total number of 240 respondents were studied from six blocks of Rajouri, Poonch and Udhampur respectively. In India, Maize is one of the most important cereal crops with total cultivated area of 9.47 Mha. and having a production of 28.72 MT. (Directorate of Economics and Statistics, 2018). Maize is widely cultivated in Jammu region of the state with an area of 190.160 thousand ha. and having a production of 436.523 thousand MT. (Directorate of Agriculture, 2018). The study revealed that average cost of cultivation of Maize in Rajouri was Rs. 13,590, Rs. 15,222 in Udhampur and Rs.16,484 in Poonch district respectively. Regarding the returns, Maize in Rajouri fetches benefit cost ratio of 1.47 whereas Maize of Poonch fetches benefit cost ratio of 1.41 followed by Udhampur fetching benefit cost ratio of 1.11. The results of the study analyzed the Compound Annual Growth Rate of Maize area and production and it was found that district Jammu showed a tremendous increase (8.60 per cent) in percentage growth in terms of area of Maizewhereas a negative decreasing trend of -1.20 per cent was seen in district Doda. In terms of production majority i.e 5.63 per cent rise in production of Maize was analyzed in district Rajouri whereas a less amount of 0.76 per cent rise in production was seen in district Doda. In terms of marketing aspect, the result depicted that in the sample area there were 3 main marketing chann