Maize production down 94% in Ludhiana district, finds study

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, August 30

Though the state government had assured farmers of MSP on maize crop in 2014, its production has witnessed 94 per cent decline in Ludhiana district in the past seven years.

While the area under the maize crop has shrunk by 83 per cent, the yield has dipped by 64 per cent in the district as compared to 2015-16. The yield and production of maize remained lowest in 2021-22.

A study of the Agriculture Department on the crop patterns pointed out that the area under maize has decreased from 7,000 hectares in 2015-16 to 1,200 hectares in 2021-22, which is 82.86 per cent less.

While the production of maize has reduced from 40,000 metric tonne (MT) in 2015-16 to only 2,500 MT in 2021-22 (reduction of 93.75 per cent), the yield has plunged from 5,719 kg per hectare in 2015-16 to 2,048 kg per hectare, a decline of 64.19 per cent. The official figures indicated that after touching its peak in 2015-16, the area, yield and production of maize has decreased in seven years.

From 7,000 hectares, 5,719 kg per hectare yield and 40,000 MT production in 2015-16, the maize, which can be grown as a single crop in a year or two to three crops in the same year with both short and long-duration varieties, reduced to 1,000 hectares, 3,320 kg per hectare yield and 3,000 MT production in 2016-17.

In 2017-18, the area under maize remained 1,000 hectares, yield slightly increased to 3,823 kg per hectare and production also went up to 4,000 MT.

It continued its upward trend in 2018-19 as well, when the area increased to 1,300 hectares, yield improved to 3,925 kg per hectare and production augmented to 5,100 MT. However, 2019-20 saw a decrease in maize area to 1,000 hectares, yield went up to 4,168 kg per hectare, and production decreased to 4,200 MT. In 2020-21, the area again remained 1,000 hectares, yield improved to 4,834 kg per hectare, and production further scaled up to 4,800 MT.

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