An Economic Appraisal and Resource Use Efficiency of Spring Maize Cultivation in Haryana

Background: Maize [Zea mays (L.)] is one of the most versatile crop thriving well in a myriad of agro-climatic environments. In Haryana, it is grown over an area of 0.07 lakh ha with production of 0.20 lakh tonnes having productivity of 3026 kg ha-1 in 2020-21. Traditionally, maize is cultivated in kharif season in Haryana but in recent years, the area under spring maize is also picking up in eastern part of the State owing to assured irrigation facilities. So, the present study evaluated cost and returns structure of spring maize and resource use efficiency in its cultivation in irrigated tract of Haryana during 2020-21. Methods: The study was based on primary data collected through face to face approach from 80 spring maize farmers using multi-stage purposive sampling technique. Simple budgeting technique was done for determining the cost and return structure of spring maize. In order to work out the resource use efficiency, production function analysis i.e. Cobb-Douglas production function was employed. Result: The findings exposed that, based on 2020-21 market prices, the average total cost of cultivation was ₹ 83350 ha-1 and gross returns realized were ₹ 108029 ha-1 reflecting net returns of ₹ 24679 ha-1. Moreover, the value of B-C ratio (1.29) reflected the profitability of spring maize cultivation in the study area. Further, the Cobb-Douglas production function analysis revealed that value of R2 was more than 0.80 in both districts and efficiency of resource use in spring maize exhibited decreasing returns to scale in both Karnal (0.91) and Kurukshetra (0.70) districts. Over-utilization of farm resources in cultivation of spring maize was observed in the study area.