After a gap of several years, maize cultivators in Haryana have a reason to cheer as they are set to reap a rich harvest following a sudden spike in the prices, which have even surpassed the minimum support price (MSP).
Though the government agencies do not procure the rabi maize, private traders have been showing a good interest this year and prices have increased up to ₹2,000 per quintal against the MSP of ₹1,870 fixed for the last year’s kharif maize and ₹1,962 fixed for the next kharif harvesting season.
“Generally, in the lack of government agencies the prices of rabi maize remained below ₹1,200 per quintal and this is for the first time in the recent memories that the prices have gone beyond ₹2,000,” said a Kurukshetra based-trader, Rampal.
The traders likened the hike to the increase in prices of wheat as they said that maize is the best alternative to wheat.
“This year, prices and crop are good and I have earned ₹52,000 per acre,” said a farmer, Madan Lal, of Karnal’s Dhanokheri village.
Poultry farms are the biggest consumer of maize, but this year a big share of the crop is being used as the cattle fodder following unprecedented increase in the wheat fodder prices.
{{/usCountry}}Poultry farms are the biggest consumer of maize, but this year a big share of the crop is being used as the cattle fodder following unprecedented increase in the wheat fodder prices.
{{/usCountry}}According to farmers, even the standing maize crop is in good demand and farmers are also selling it as green fodder for ₹40,000 to ₹50,000 per acre.
“A private silage maker has bought my standing crop of two acres at ₹43,000 per acre. It also saved me the harvesting cost of ₹5,000 per acre as they harvested it with their own machines,” said Dinesh Kamboj of Radaur in Yamunanagar district.
As per agriculture experts, maize is not just an alternative of wheat, but it also helps farmers grow three crops a year, thus breaking the traditional wheat-paddy cycle as wheat takes six months while maize takes only half the time.
They said the farmers can increase their income by adopting the three-crop pattern of paddy-mustard-maize to enhance profitability by replacing the rice-wheat system.
However, officials in the Haryana agriculture department said they do not have figures of area under maize (rabi) cultivation in the state. They said that the government was pushing the farmers to grow kharif maize by replacing paddy as it is also procured on the MSP by the government agencies.
As per the officials, the area under maize crop remains around 8,000 hectare as farmers in the northern region prefer to grow maize after mustard, sugarcane and potato.