Jowar occupies about 8% of the total area of the food grains and 10% of the cereals. Similarly its output is 4.1 % of the total production of food grains and 4.3% of the cereals in the country. Except between 1950-51 and 1960-61 there has been steady decline in the area of Jowar.
The area has declined from 184 lakh hectares in 1960-61 to 92 lakh hectares i n 2002-03 at an average annual rate of 1.13 per cent. On the other hand the production trend has been very fluctuating between 1950-51 and 2002-03.
Jowar is essentially a crop of the Peninsular India. Three leading producers include Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh which together account for 78 per cent of the total area and about 8 I per cent of the total production of jowar in the country. Three northern states of Uttar Pradesh,
Rajasthan and Haryana collectively occupy about 10 per cent of the total area and 5 per cent of the total output of the crop in the country.
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Maharashtra
Maharashtra is the leading producer of Jowar in the country. Both in terms of area and production its share has been half of the country. The area, production and yield have shown wide fluctuations. While the area has increased from 65.61 lakh hectares in 1983-84 to 66.26 lakh hectares in 1985-86 it has fallen down to 48 lakh hectares in 2002-03.
The production increased from 46.78 lakh tones in 1983-84 to a record high of 66.68 lakh tonnes in 1992-93 and to fall back a low of 37.80 lakh tones in 1997-98. Jowar occupies about 31% of the total cropped area of the state. The crop is mainly grown in the central parts of the state with Jalgaon, Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Yeotmal. Aurangabad,
Ahmadnagar, Bhir, Usmanabad, Nanded, Solapur, Nagpur and Sangli districts being the important producers.
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Karnataka
Karnataka accounts for 19.4 per cent of the total area and 18.5 per cent of the total production of jowar in the country. Here jowar occupies about 16 to 30 per cent of the total area of the state of which about 15 per cent fall under HYV. The crop occupies a major area in the dry north-eastern parts of the Karnataka Plateau where the amount of annual rainfall lies between 50 and 80 cm. Dharwar, Belgaum, Bijapur, Raichur, Bellary, Chitradurga, Mysore and Gulbarga districts are the main producers which account for over 80 per cent of state’s production.
There has been a wide fluctuation in the area and production of jowar in the state. Both have recorded declining trend between 1983-84 and 2002-03. While the area has decreased from 22.51 lakh hectares in 1983-84 to 17.83 lakh hectares in 2002-03 (-20.8%) the production has slightly increased from 17.88 lakh tonnes in 1983-84 to 18.51 lakh tones in 2002-03 (+4%). This is due to the shift of the area to rice cultivation with the improvement in irrigation facilities.
Madhya Pradesh
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Madhya Pradesh is the third largest producer of Jowar in the country accounting for 6.4 per cent of total area and 7.9 per cent of total production. Mandsaur, West Nimar, Rajgarh, Shajapur, East Nimar, Chhindwara, Dewas, Dhar, Guna, Sehore, Shivpuri in the central and western parts of the state are the main producing districts. In recent years there has been sharp decline in the area and production of jowar in the state; area decreasing from 21.28 lakh hectares in 1983-84 to 5.89 lakh hectares (-72%), and production declining from 19.83 lakh tones in 1983-84 to 7.87 lakh tones in 2000- 03 (-60.3%). This is due to the shift of the Jowar area to the cultivation of rice, and soyabean etc.
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh shares 6.2 per cent of the total area and 7.4 per cent of the total output of Jowar in India. Here Jowar areas mainly occupy central and western parts of the state. Jowar occupies 41 percent of the total cropped area in Mahbubnagar, Hyderabad and Nizamabad districts. Other important producers include Adilabad, Medak, Warangal, Khammam, Kurnool, Nalgonda and Anantapur districts. There has been 4.7 per cent and 3.8 per cent per annum decrease in the area and production of jowar respectively during 1983-84 and 1997-98.
Tamil Nadu
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Tamil Nadu contributes 3.6 per cent of the total area and 4.5 per cent of the total production of jowar in the country. Here major part of the production comes from Madurai, Coirnbatore, Tiruchchirappalli and Dharmapuri districts.
In Uttar Pradesh jowar is grown in the south-I western parts of the state. In Gujarat Jowar occupies 16-30 per cent of the cropped area in Vadodara,! Bharuch, Surendranagar, Surat and Kachchh dis- j tricts. Major part of the jowar area in Rajasthan lies’ in Ajmer, Tonk, Pali, Nagaur, Jhalawar, Kota, Bundi, Jodhpur, and Jaipur districts.
Trade
Major part of the jowar production is consumed locally without involving inter-state trading. About 10 per cent of the total produce comes to the market, 80 per cent of it within Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
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Prospects
Decline in the area and production of jowar is a matter of serious concern. It requires redesigning of agricultural strategy to improve the productivity of the crop by introducing new HYV seeds and improving input facilities. There is a wide scope to make the crop popular in dry farming areas. In the days of commercial agriculture the crop can only sustain if it is remunerative and profitable to the farmers.