Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(5): 635-647 635 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.705.078 Inefficiency in Cultivation of Maize on Different Sized Farm in Uttar Pradesh, India A.K. Vishandass 1 , R.C. Lal 2 , Jaspal Singh 3 and Amod Sharma 4* 1 Union Public Service Commission, Dholpur House, New Delhi, India 2 Department of Agricultural Economics, 3 Cost of Cultivation Scheme, Raja Balwant Singh College, Bichpuri, Agra (Uttar Pradesh), India 4 Department of Agricultural Economics, Nagaland University, SASRD, Medziphema: Campus (Nagaland), India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Agriculture is the mainstay of Indian economy both in terms of contribution to GDP and the proportion of population dependent upon it. A high growth rate of agriculture is essential for achieving the objective of food security at macro as well as micro levels and also for alleviating poverty level. While 21.00 per cent (at constant price) of the GDP in India is contributed by agriculture sector almost two- third of the country‟s population is dependent on this sector. Agriculture exports accounts for about 14.00 per cent of the country‟s total exports 14 . International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 05 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com It is well known fact that the globalization and ongoing reforms under WTO regime has more pressure especially being exerted on agriculture and to improve its efficiency, so as to enable agricultural commodities to compete in international market. Of late, there has been surge in demand for maize in the international market and this crop has attracted global interest. In view of this, an attempt has been made to quantify the inefficiency existing in the production process of maize and policy prescription to control inefficiencies to make Indian maize more competitive. The study reveals that various measures of inefficiency have shown an inverse relationship between farm size and inefficiency in panel - I (pre WTO) while in panel - II the medium farms were least inefficient. Unlike in panel - I, no clear relationship between farm size and inefficiency could be observed in the panel - II. Notwithstanding this, the existence of inefficiency indicates that there is a potential for decreasing cost and raising output and profit. Further, when the farms of different size-classes over two panels were considered, it was found that the degree of inefficiency of farms for respective sizes in the panel - I is significantly higher than that in the panel - II. Keywords Uttar Pradesh, Inefficiency, Maize, Farm, Cultivation, Size Accepted: 07 April 2018 Available Online: 10 May 2018 Article Info