MAIZE

Tall annual cereal grass bearing kernels on large ears: widely cultivated in America in many varieties; the principal cereal in Mexico and Central and South America since pre-Columbian times.

Varieties of Maize

• Dent corn
• Flint corn
• Popcorn
• Flour corn
• Sweet corn
• Pod corn

India in World Maize Industry

Country	Metric Ton
	1995	2000	2003
Argentina	11,404,041	16,781,400	15,040,000
Brazil	36,266,952	31,879,392	47,809,300
China	112,361,571	106,178,315	114,175,000
France	12,739,600	16,018,353	11,898,000
India	9,534,000	12,043,200	14,800,000
Indonesia	8,245,902	9,677,000	10,910,104
Italy	8,454,200	10,137,500	8,978,180
Nigeria	6,931,000	4,107,000	5,150,000
Romania	9,923,132	4,898,000	9,576,985
South Africa	4,866,000	11,431,183	9,714,254
Ukraine	3,391,800	3,848,100	6,900,000
United States of America	187,968,992	251,854,000	256,904,560

ALL-INDIA AREA, PRODUCTION AND YIELD OF MAIZE

YEAR	AREA (M.HECTS)	PRODUCTION (M.TONNES)	YIELD (KGS/HECT)	% COVERAGE UNDER IRRIGATION
1	2	3	4	5
1949-50	3.26	2.05	627	12.8
1950-51	3.16	1.73	547	11.4
1951-52	3.31	2.08	627	16.4
1952-53	3.61	2.87	796	14
1953-54	3.87	3.04	785	11.5
1954-55	3.75	2.98	794	14.6
1955-56	3.7	2.6	704	11.8
1956-57	3.76	3.08	819	13.1
1957-58	4.08	3.15	772	13.4
1958-59	4.27	3.46	812	10.5
1959-60	4.34	4.07	938	9.9
1960-61	4.41	4.08	926	12.6
1961-62	4.51	4.31	957	9.5
1962-63	4.64	4.61	992	11.5
1963-64	4.58	4.56	995	11.4
1964-65	4.62	4.66	1010	12.1
1965-66	4.8	4.82	1005	16.1
1966-67	5.07	4.89	964	15.6
1967-68	5.58	6.27	1123	11.9
1968-69	5.72	5.7	997	19.5
1969-70	5.86	5.67	968	18.2
1970-71	5.85	7.49	1279	15.9
1971-72	5.67	5.1	900	14.3
1972-73	5.84	6.39	1094	18.8
1973-74	6.02	5.8	965	14.7
1974-75	5.86	5.56	948	21
1975-76	6.03	7.26	1203	16.2
1976-77	6	6.36	1060	17.7
1977-78	5.68	5.97	1051	16.3
1978-79	5.76	6.2	1076	16.3
1979-80	5.72	5.6	979	24
1980-81	6.01	6.96	1159	20.1
1981-82	5.94	6.9	1162	19.8
1982-83	5.72	6.55	1145	21.7
1983-84	5.86	7.92	1352	16.9
1984-85	5.8	8.44	1456	17.5
1985-86	5.8	6.64	1146	18.7
1986-87	5.92	7.59	1282	21.2
1987-88	5.56	5.72	1029	21.2
1988-89	5.9	8.23	1395	21
1989-90	5.92	9.65	1632	20.8
1990-91	5.9	8.96	1518	19.7
1991-92	5.86	8.06	1376	22.5
1992-93	5.96	9.99	1676	21.6
1993-94	6	9.6	1602	22.6
1994-95	6.14	8.88	1570	20.5
1995-96	5.98	9.53	1595	22.7
1996-97	6.26	10.77	1720
1997-98	6.31	10.85	1721

STATE-WISE AREA, PRODUCTION AND YIELD OF MAIZE

1997-98
STATE	AREA (M. HECTS)	% OF TOTAL AREA	PRODUCTION (M.TONNES)	% OF TOTAL PRODUCTION	YIELD (KGS/HECT)	%COVERAGE UNDER IRRIGATION (1995-96)
1	2	3	4	5	6	12
ANDHRA PRADESH	0.4	6.3	1.08	10	2737	34.2
BIHAR	0.69	10.9	1.17	10.8	1703	40
GUJARAT	0.4	6.3	0.66	6.1	1646	9.6
HIMACHAL PRADESH	0.31	4.9	0.62	5.7	1990	7.5
JAMMU & KASHMIR	0.31	4.9	0.44	4.1	1418	5.9
KARNATAKA	0.56	8.9	1.67	15.4	2984	65.2
MADHYA PRADESH	0.83	13.2	1.1	10.1	1318	1.3

Factors that Affects Maize Prices

• Role of weather in crop production is immense. Temperature, rainfall and soil moisture are the important parameters that determine the crop condition. Further, natural calamities like typhoon, floods, droughts and earthquake can also affect crops. Markets keep watch of these developments.
  
  
• Changes in the minimum support prices (MSP) by the government also have immense impact on the prices of the commodity.
  
  
• Availability of substitute products at cheaper rate may lead to weakness in demand. This situation happens especially when the main products price tends to become higher. For e.g., jowar/ bajra may be preferred by poultry feed manufacturers instead of maize, if its prices are high
  
  
• Breakthrough in the technology may increase the productivity and would lead to more supply. This may bring some softness in the price.