Socio-economic Profiles of Maize Growers in Surguja District, Chhattisgarh, India

Abstract

The present study was carried out in the Surguja district of Chhattisgarh state. Data were collected from 120 respondents from 8 selected villages. The results indicate that most of the respondents belonged to the  middle age group, had a tribal category, had different level of education from primary to higher education level, were small size and had a joint family system, engaged in agriculture with labour activity, had an annual income and also the contribution of maize to their annual income was medium level, medium category of land ownership and large category of  area under the maize cultivation, maize was the main commercial crop in wet and dry seasons, productivity of maize was medium level, low experience in cultivation, the majority of respondents consumed maize as flour/ bread, corn and animal/poultry feed, maximum respondents belonged in two or more organizations membership with moderate participation, Progressive farmers, Krishi Sangwari and RAEOs were major sources of technology information, tube wells were main source of irrigation, medium to a high level of knowledge of maize cultivation, regular available agricultural inputs, produce sold to local/outside traders, every respondents adopted the marketing channel as Producer-traders-wholesaler-retailer- consumer for their grain produce and did not adopt storage practice. The association of family size, occupation, annual income, land ownership, maize acreage, productivity, farming experience, knowledge of maize technology, marketing, education and source of irrigation were found positive and significantly correlated with the extent of adoption of maize technology. And remaining variables like the contribution of maize to their annual income, consumption pattern, social participation, extension agency contact, inputs availability and Storage practices were found nonsignificant association.