Varietal evaluation of maize crop for better production in District Auraiya, Uttar Pradesh

Maize the "Queen of Cereals", is one of the most important cereal crops in the world agriculture economy. It is mainly used as feed for animals followed by food for human and in industrial use as raw material. Maize is a third important cereal next to Paddy and Wheat in India. The total acreage under maize during 2017-18 is about 9.47 Mha Vis-a-Viz the acreage under Paddy and wheat is 43.79 Mha & 29.58 Mha respectively (Agriculture statistics at a Glance, 2019). India is the 7th largest producer of maize, while ranked 4th position in area. With increasing focus on water conservation, Maize has a huge potential to replace water consuming crops such as Paddy, Wheat and Sugarcane, as maize is a less water demanding crop and also have multiple utility as Food, Feed, Fuel and in Industries. Though this crop is emerging as potential candidate for increasing the farmers' income and employment generation, the major issue of concern is that the average productivity in India is 2.6 MT/ha which is 130 percent less as compared to the world average. Majority of the farmers in India grow traditional maize varieties as it is suitable for consumption though, in the recent years, farmers continue to replace traditional cultivars with the newer higher-yielding hybrid varieties. Technology Assessed: An On Farm Trial was conducted in Kharif 2012 by KVK, Parwaha, Auraiya to optimize the maize yield through high yielding variety developed by private sector. The varieties decal dissel, 003 Tata and 30V92 was tested against the local variety. The varieties i.e. Decal Desel (5.54 t/ha) and 003 Tata (4.84 t/ha) showed the higher grain yield as compared to 30V92 (4.77 t/ha). In terms of return Decal Dissel showed the highest net return of Rs. 33000/- as compared to 003 Tata which showed the net return of Rs. 26000/- and least is in case of 30V92 (Rs. 25400/-). This showed that Decal Dissel performance was best in Auraiya.