Economics of Maize Cultivation

 This year the monsoon rains have been deficient in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh with cumulative rainfall of only 490 mm as against average monsoon rains of 900 mm. Consequently, the kharif crops have been affected adversely and in most cases the rabi crops too will suffer due to lack of water. The yield per hectare for maize for instance, which is the major kharif food crop, has been 50 quintals whereas it is normally around 60 quintals.

What are the marginal farmers defined as having one hectare or less of land holding, who do all the labour involved by themselves, earning then from this crop per hectare? The crop is selling at Rs 2000 per quintal in the agricultural mandis so the gross sale value of 50 quintals produced on one hectare is Rs 1 lakh. The costs that the farmers incur in hiring tractors and purchasing inputs that have to be deducted are as follows -
1. Land preparation and Sowing by tractor - Rs 3000
2. Hybrid Seeds - Rs 7000
3. Two Harrowings - Rs 4000
4. Weedicide - Rs 3000
4. Fertilisers - Rs 5000
5. Pesticides - Rs 2000
6. Threshing - Rs 6000
The total cost outgo is Rs 30000. Thus, the net earning is Rs 70000. The number of days of household labour that has been put in is as follows -
1. Land preparation and sowing - 2
2. Weeding - 6
3. Fertiliser Application - 6
4. Pesticide Application - 2
5. Harvesting - 14
6. General farm management over a period of four months requires 30 days, assuming that one person at least has to manage the farm every day for some time say two hours.
Thus, the total household farm labour involved is 60 days. The daily minimum wage for skilled labour in Madhya Pradesh is Rs 582. Even though the actual agricultural daily wage is only Rs 300 we will go with this value for calculation purposes. Thus, the total labour cost rounded off is Rs 35000 which since it stays within the household can be assumed to take care of the food requirements. This leaves a surplus income of Rs 35000 over four months from which the farmer has to meet other farm maintenance and investment, household, health, education, entertainment, phone and travel expenditures. This is obviously insufficient. The Minimum Support Price for Maize determined by the Union Government is Rs 2410 per quintal but the Madhya Pradesh Government is not procuring maize and so the marginal farmers have to take the market price. However, even if they did get this MSP their surplus income would only increase by another meagre Rs 20000. In a normal monsoon year with an output of 60 quintals the earnings would be another Rs 20000 which too is inadequate. The net earnings from the wheat crop in the rabi season for those who have irrigation is also similar. In most cases there is no crop in the summer season and so the income for the whole year is grossly inadequate.
Even for medium and large farmers with landholdings of five hectares or more the economics of maize cultivation is unfavourable as they have to hire labour over and above their own labour.