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Farmgate prices of maize (corn) that arrive after the kharif crop is harvested will likely rule around ₹2,300 a quintal this year if the monsoon turns out to be normal, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has said.
Analysing the farmgate prices based on the rates at the Udumalpet agricultural produce marketing committee (APMC) yard for the past 27 years, the Price Forecasting Scheme of the Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development Studies, TNAU, advised growers in Tamil Nadu to take up appropriate sowing decisions.
The forecast of the price is against the minimum support price (MSP) of ₹2,090 a quintal fixed by the Centre this crop year (July 2023-June 2024).
Poor arrivals projected
The university, pointing to trade sources, said maize prices could rise as arrivals from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh could be poor.
It said demand for Indian maize is huge in the global market as the crop area in Argentina is lower due to drought, while supplies from Ukraine have been curbed due to the ongoing war with Russia.
According to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), maize exports in the first quarter of the current fiscal were 8.42 lakh tonnes, valued at $234 million.
Vietnam, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Malaysia were the biggest buyers of Indian maize in the first quarter. According to TNAU, Myanmar, Pakistan and Bhutan, too, buy Indian maize considerably.
Record output
Maize is cultivated on 4 lakh hectares in Tamil Nadu with production in 2021-22 being 2.82 million tonnes. The crop is grown in Salem, Dindigul, Namakkal, Pudukottai, Tiruppur, Villupuram, Perambalur and Ariyalur districts.
Maize production was a record 35.91 million tonnes in the 2022-23 crop year with 99.5 lakh hectares coming under the hardy crop. Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, West Bengal and Rajasthan are the major growing States.
The Price Forecasting Scheme is funded by World Bank supported Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agricultural Modernisation project.
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