International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

author(s)
Tsewang Dolma, LK Sharma, Rakesh Sharma, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Manish Sharma and Lalit Mohan Gupta

abstract
The present study was conducted during 2022-23 in Punjab and the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir (UT). Two districts were chosen from Punjab: Ropar and Hoshiarpur and Jammu and from Jammu and Kashmir (UT): Jammu and Rajouri. Within these districts, three blocks with the maximum area under maize were purposively selected namely: Bhunga, Hoshiarpur-I, Hoshiarpur-II, Anandpur Sahib, Nupur Bedi and Ropar from Punjab and Akhnoor, Bhalwal Brahmna, Nagrota, Sunder Bani, Kalakote and Nowshera from sub-tropics of Jammu region. From each block, two villages were randomly selected, resulting in a total of 24 villages. Subsequently, 15 farmers were randomly selected from each village, yielding a final sample size of 360 respondents. The results of binary logistic model on factors affecting limitations faced by maize growers in cultivation of maize crop revealed that the major problems faced by the respondents were water scarcity which had the most significant impact on maize cultivation (54%) followed by labour shortage during peak time (41%), high fuel cost of transportation (36%), insect-pest attack (24%), power shortage (23%), wild animal menace (15%) and low market price (15%). In contrast, late availability of inputs (3%), poor quality inputs (7%) and absence of fixed price (30%) were not influenced by farmer-level factors indicating these are institutional issues. The findings suggest that improving maize cultivation requires both farm-level solutions such as better irrigation, pest management, mechanization and labour-saving practices along with institutional support for timely input supply, assured quality and fair price systems to make production more sustainable and profitable.