Farmers in Tamil Nadu (TN), who were affected due to price volatility in sugar cane, turmeric, and vegetables in recent years, now seem to be switching over to maize cultivation step-by-step. Immediate liquidity in the market, store-and-sell facility, and high demand from Namakkal, have prompted TN farmers to increase maize cultivation in recent seasons, farming sources said.
A major chunk of maize produced in the state was procured by the poultry industry. Of the total 20-crore layer birds in the country, poultry farms in the Namakkal zone alone houses around 3.5-4-crore layer birds. According to research by the Domestic and Export Market Intelligence Cell (DEMIC) of Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, the demand for maize by the poultry industry in TN alone is estimated to be around 8-lakh tonne a year, but only a fifth of the demand was met through local production.
Currently, TN poultry farms procure a major part of its maize requirement from Karnataka, Bihar, and Andhra Pradesh at premium prices.
In TN, maize accounts for 83.4% (2 lakh hectare) of the total area under millets. It is mainly cultivated in Perambalur, Dindigul, Coimbatore, Salem, Erode, and Virudhunagar districts, which together share 77.1 % of the total area under this crop in the state. The state government has set a target to increase the maize coverage in the state to 3-lakh hectare in 2006-07.
Farm sources said the area under maize cultivation has increased by at least 20% during 2007.
The DEMIC report said the country produces around 15 million tonne of maize from an area of 8.3 million hectare, with a productivity of 1.8 tonne per hectare. Andhra Pradesh tops among other states with 3-million tonne of maize production every year. The report further noted that maize production is expected to touch 16.3 million tonne as against 15 million tonne in 2006-07.