Maize Acreage Soars Amid Strong Farmer Enthusiasm

01-Aug-2025 04:00 PM

New Delhi. Indian farmers are showing tremendous enthusiasm this time in the cultivation of maize, the most important coarse grain of Kharif season, due to which its production area has increased to 85.58 lakh hectares at the national level,

which is 6.66 lakh hectares more than the sowing area of 78.92 lakh hectares during the same period last year. This area of maize is also more than the normal average area. Sowing is still going on in some areas.

Compared to last year, during the current Kharif season, the production area of maize jumped from 10.51 lakh hectares to 13.84 lakh hectares in Maharashtra,

increased from 14.60 lakh hectares to 16.28 lakh hectares in Karnataka and improved from 9.48 lakh hectares to 9.66 lakh hectares in Rajasthan.

Similarly, the sowing area of this important coarse grain increased from 3.80 lakh acres to 5.47 lakh acres in Telangana and from 71 thousand hectares to 77 thousand hectares in Andhra Pradesh, but in Gujarat it remained at 2.81 lakh hectares to 2.53 lakh hectares.

In this way, the total area of maize in the above states increased from 41.91 lakh hectares last year to 6.63 lakh hectares to 48.54 lakh hectares this time.

This area in different states is between 25 to 31 July. Apart from this, maize is also cultivated on a large scale in many other states of the country, which include Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand etc.

The Central Government has increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of maize by Rs 175 from Rs 2225 per quintal for the 2024-25 season to Rs 2400 per quintal for the 2025-26 season. Farmers are getting attractive and profitable prices for maize, so their interest and activity in its cultivation has increased.

The maize market equation has changed due to the tremendous demand in the ethanol manufacturing industry. Apart from this, maize is also traditionally used heavily in the production of animal feed, poultry feed and starch.