Economic Affairs, Vol. 64, No. 2, pp. 317-322, June 2019 DOI: 10.30954/0424-2513.2.2019.6 ©2019 New Delhi Publishers. All rights reserved Severity Analysis of Problems Faced by Maize Growers in Punjab Yugraj Singh and Baljinder Kaur Sidana* Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, Punjab, India *Corresponding author: baljindersidana@gmail.com ABSTRACT The area under maize crop has been consistently decreasing in the Punjab state over the last few decades, despite its multiple uses. Inefective implementation of price policy along with certain problems, the maize growers could not earn remunerative returns form maize cultivation in the state. The present study was designed to highlight the various problems in the context of production and marketing front of maize crop in the Punjab state. The data with respect to various problems being faced by the maize growers were collected through well structured pre-tested schedule. The data recorded on scales and severity analysis was carried out by using mean rank score. Garret ranking technique was applied to extract the important problems that infuence the maize cultivation in the Punjab state. The severity analysis indicated that among biotic constraints, the emergence of diseases (mean score=1.82) was reported as the most severe problem faced by the maize growers. Plant protection measures being adopted by the maize growers for efective control of insect, pest and management of diseases could increase the production cost of maize. Based on the value of mean score, shortage of labor supply during peak season (mean score=2.82) was the most important problems amongst abiotic problems, while the intensity of the problems like price variability, shortage of farm machinery was moderately high in the study area. Low price of the produce was exposed as the most infuential problem by applying Likert scale. Shortage of labour supply during peak season, emergence of diseases, insect-pest atack and weeds infestation were exposed as moderately severe problems. Hence, the efective and suitable measures to address the highlighted problems of maize could provide impetus to increase maize acreage in the Punjab state. Highlights m Among diferent varieties of maize, the productivity of hybrid maize is at par with its competing crop, paddy, but still farmers are reluctant in growing maize, the second most important cereal crop of kharif season, due to a number of production and marketing constraints being faced by them. The study highlights the main obstacles faced by maize growers in Punjab state which comes in the way, though the crop is relatively less costly and moreover requires nearly one-fourth of water than its competing crop. Keywords: Maize, Mean Score, Severity Analysis, Problems, Garret ranking technique Maize (Zea mays) is one of the most important cereal crop worldwide; not only for human consumption but also for animal consumption. The crop is an important staple food for more than 1.2 billion people in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and a key food crop in Asia. Globally what makes maize a popular crop from cultivation point of view, is its versatility in terms of its suitability to diverse agro-climatic zones ofering highest genetic yield potential amongst other cereal crops. Maize is used for myriad purposes ranging from both human and animal consumption to industrial use. As demand for maize is growing globally due to its multiple uses for food, feed and industrial sector, we need to produce more from same or even less resources (DMR, 2013). As per recent estimates, about 1040 million tonnes of maize has been produced on 185 million hectares of area in the world. Maize was cultivated on 4.49 per cent of total cropped area in the year 2015-16 and produced approximately