Study on Growth and Instability of Maize in Jammu and Kashmir

Maize one of the important crops of rainfed agriculture is grown in low, mid and high hill altitudes. For working out the growth rates of area, production and yield of maize, the data has been collected for the period from 1987–88 to 2006–07. The entire period under review has been sub-divided into three different sub-periods i.e. Period- I (1987–88 to 1996–97), Period-II (1997–98 to 2006–07) and Overall Period (1977–78 to 2006–07). It has been observed that there is positive and significant growth trend in production (3.64 per cent) as well as yield (3.53 per cent) of maize in Period-I in India. A drastic decline in yield (− 0.42 per cent) has been observed in Period-II even in spite of significant growth during period-I (3.19 per cent) and overall period (0.25 per cent). In Jammu region, the growth in area (0.80 per cent) and production (0.35 per cent) are positive and significant in spite of negative growth (−0.58 per cent) in yield. The area, production and yield instability in maize is very prominent in Jammu and Kashmir during the periods-I and II. The overall instability in area, production and yield are 5.04 per cent, 10.14 per cent and 10.20 per cent, respectively.