Economic Affairs

Globally, maize occupies a prominent place among cereals and ranks first in terms of productivity and third in total area and production after rice and wheat, respectively. But there is hardly any work which has analysed its costs and returns. In order to evaluate the most profitable treatment, economic analysis of treatments was worked out in terms of net returns and benefit cost (B:C) ratio. The cost and analysis structure of production of green cobs and green fodder ha⁻¹ on hectare bases worked out for three fertility levels F₁, F₂ and F₃ in combination with three plant population P₁, P₂ and P₃ along with three sulphur levels S₀, S₁ and S_2. the cost incurred on field preparation ( 2000), lay-out ( 1040), sowing ( 1040), irrigation charges ( 2032), thinning and earthing up ( 832), insecticide application ( 568), watching and scaring of birds ( 2080), land revenue ( 60), weeding ( 4680) and harvesting ( 2080) was found to be same in all the treatments. The variability in cost of cultivation arised due to different seed rates and application of seconday nutrient i.e. sulphur. It was found that economic returns of the crop are directly related to its yield also, inadequate supply of nutrients and without proper plant geometry, sweet corn plants are undernourished and gives poor yield. Thus, for obtaining higher yield and economically sustained sweet corn should be supplied with sufficient amount of nutrients, while, maintaining proper plant geometry.