International Journal of Plant & Soil Science

Agricultural growth and instability have remained subject of intense debate in the agricultural economics literature in India. Instability is a very essential characteristic of agriculture. Since agriculture is dependent on weather conditions, the area, production and yield of the crops are subject to significant variations over time. This study aims at studying the growth and instability in the Maize crop of India. Coppock’s instability index has been calculated, in order to assess the performance of area, production and productivity of maize in Telangana, the present study was taken up by estimating the patterns of growth and magnitude of instability. Time series data for the period 2002-03 to 2016-17. On area, production and productivity were collected. The instability of the area under maize in Telangana State was calculated by Coppock’s instability index. The period of study was divided into four periods to show variation in different periods (every five years), i.e. Period-I (2002-03 to 2006-07), Period-II (2007-08 to 2011-12), Period-III (2012-13 to 2016-17) and the overall period (2002-03 to 2016-17). It is revealed from the results that during Period-I, the highest instability in the area was observed in Nalgonda district (66.55 per cent) followed by Rangareddy, while lowest instability index percentage was observed in Adilabad (8.70 per cent) During overall period of study (Period-IV) instability of Telangana State was 16.63 per cent. During Period-I, the highest instability in production was observed in Nalgonda district (118.32 per cent), The instability in production recorded for Telangana State was 47.57 per cent. The coefficient of instability in productivity of maize during the overall period of study (Period-IV) of Mahabubnagar (113.21 per cent), in the productivity of Telangana State, was 28.95 per cent. It was concluded that there was no stability in area, production, productivity under maize crop in Telangana State over period of study.