Vol. 11, Special Issue 10 (2022)

Author(s):
S Arivarasan, V Balamurugan, T Anitha, M Balakrishnan, Dr. S Selvam and Dr. KR Vijayalatha

Abstract:
The present study was conducted in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. After selecting Cuddalore district, the Mangalur block was purposively selected since it has the largest area under maize cultivation. The overall objective of the study was to examine production and marketing aspects in maize. The resulted showed that the cost A1 accounted for nearly 83.73 percent of the cost of cultivation. Since the entire sample farmers were owner operators, Cost A2 was the same as that of Cost A1. Cost B1 and B2 accounted for 84.17 percent and 98.64 percent of the total cost of cultivation respectively. Cost C1 accounted for 85.54 percent of the total cost of cultivation, while the value of Cost C2 found to be 100 percent. There was marginal increase in per hectare yield of maize with increase in size groups. The results of Cobb-Douglas production function analysis of rainfed maize revealed that the R² was 0.59 which indicated that 59 percent of the variation in the dependent variable was accounted by the independent variables selected for the study. The variables like seeds, FYM and potassium were significant at one percent level of probability which indicated that an increase in one kg of seed, FYM and potassium Ceteris paribus, would increase the yield by 0.30, 0.10 and 0.07 percent. The study also revealed that 81.67 percent of maize growers marketed cent percent of their produce immediately after harvest, while 10 percent of the farmers marketed 76 to 99 percent of their harvested produce. Furthermore, it was found that 100 percent of the farmers marketed their produce only through the village merchants. Price spread analysis revealed that the farmers received 95.03 percent of the consumer’s price. With respect to the problems faced by the sample farmers, inadequate transport facility was the major problem faced with a mean score of 61.40 percent, followed by distant location of regulated market with the mean score of 50.90 percent and inadequate storage facility 43.85 percent.