Maize is indigenous plant of America from where it was brought to India by East India Company in the early part of the 17th century. It is an important food crop of poor people in the Great Plains and in the hilly and sub-montane tracts of the North. It is also used for making glucose and starch. Its stalk is fed to cattle.
Conditions of Growth
Maize requires average temperature between 21°C and 27°C. Temperature below 10°C or above 35°C is harmful for the crop. Frost is fata) and dry winds are harmful. Maize needs 50 to 75 cm of annual rainfall. In north India isohyets of 50 cm and 80 cm respectively form the western and eastern beginning of the cold season. In Tamil Nadu it is sown in September-October before the beginning of the winter rains.
The op is inter-cultured with pulses (urd, moong, jihar), cotton, sesamum and vegetables. The field “quires thorough preparations and well-pulverised ils free from weeds and stubbles. India mostly rows flint maize, but dent varieties are also culti- ated in some parts of Rajasthan and Himachal pradesh.
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Yield
The per hectare yield of maize is less than heat and rice but higher than jowar and bajra. The r hectare yield which was 547 kg in 1950-51 rose 1279 kg i n 1970-71,1720 kg in 1996-97 and 1963 in 2001 -02due to introduction of HYV like Ganga Ganga White 3, Ganga 101, Vijay, Amber, Himalaya 3, Bassi Selected, Jawahar, Sona, Ranjeet, Deccan, ikram, and Udaipur Selected etc.
Among the states “Andhra Pradesh (2825 kg/ha) records the highest per tare yield followed by Karnataka (2129 kg/ha), Punjab (2039 kg/ha), Maharashtra (2005 kg/ha), agaland (2000 kg/ha) and Jharkhand (1799 kg/ha), e states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh which have 41 % of the country’s maize area or the minimum per hectare yields of 885 kg., 766 kg. And 1101 kg respectively.
The HYV area of baize has increased from 0.5 million ha. (8.5%) in 970-71 to 3.6 million ha. in 1997-98 and the per tare yield of maize has also risen from 547 kg in 1950-51 to 1785 kg in 1999-2000, marking an increase of 226% during the last 49 years (4.61 % per year).