Abstract
Maize remained the single largest cereal crop in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) for many decades. It was the staple food among Kashmiries before the availability of substitutes like wheat and rice. Maize is still one of the major staple foods and also an important source of fodder for animals. In order to explore farmers' practices in maize cultivation and consumption the study was conducted covering major maize growing districts of AJK. A three stage stratified random sampling technique was used to draw sample of 175 respondents and descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data. It was observed that majority (59 percent) of the farmers was growing traditional varities. On an average the farmers were using seed @ 3.41 kg/kanal. The use of chemical fertilizer was very low in quantity terms whereas none of the farmers was applying pesticides. Average yield of 401 kg per acre was observed. Lodging emerged as the main impediment in achieving higher yield. About eighty two percent of the mziae production was used for home consumption, six percent reserved for seed and just ten percent of the production was sold to fellow farmers or in the market. Key words: Maize, production, consumption, cropping pattern, agronomic practices, cultural practices, Lodging.
