PERCEPTIONS OF MAIZE PRODUCERS REGARDING CULTIVATIONAL PRACTICES AND MARKETING PROBLEMS IN TEHSIL DEPALPUR DISTRICT OKARA, PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Maize lies at third position among cereal crops all over the world with an overall area of more than 118 million hectares yielding about 600 million metric tons’ annual production. Whereas, in Pakistan's maize ranks at 4 position after wheat, cotton and rice. It has a share of 0.5% in GDP and 2.4% in agriculture while occupies an area over 1.2 million hectares with annual production of 5.7 million tons (GOP, 2016). Maize crop serves as a major income generation source in developing or underdeveloped world (Tagne et al.,2008). Most importantly, maize has substantial role and use in the making of various products i.e. glucose, maize oil, corn peel, starch, gluten, breakfast cereals, poultry feed etc. Its flour is used for making chapattis or flatbreads in Indo-Pak (Younis et al., 2016). It is important to use suitable technologies by small growers to increase maize productivity who frequently require more food. The use of better maize seeds is an example of these technological innovations. However, the implementation of this type of seed in developing countries is still meager (Tanveer et al., 2014). Increasing agricultural productivity is critical to meet expected increasing demand and, as such, it is instructive to examine current performance in cases of new agricultural technologies (Rong et al.,2013). The most familiar areas of technology enlargement and encouragement for crops comprise new varieties and management regimes; soil as well as soil richness management, weed and pest management, irrigation and water management (Loevinsohn et al.,2013). Straight tillage influences bulk density, soil porosity, penetration conflict and J. Glob. Innov. Agric. Soc. Sci., 2019,7(4):177-180. ISSN (Online): 2311-3839; ISSN (Print): 2312-5225 DOI: :https://doi.org/10.22194/JGIASS/7.876 http://www.jgiass.com