Maharashtra - Region Profile

Maharashtra is a state in the western region of India. It is the second most populous state after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India. Maharashtra is the wealthiest state in India, contributing 15% of the country's industrial output and 13.3% of its GDP. Maharashtra encompasses an area of 30.77 million hectare and as per the 2001 census, it has a population of 112.3 million. More than 60% of the people of Maharashtra are employed in agriculture and allied activities. Food crops include mangoes, grapes, bananas, oranges, wheat, rice, jowar, bajra, and pulses. Cash crops include groundnut, cotton, sugarcane, turmeric, and tobacco. The net irrigated area totals 33,500 hectares. Table 1 illustrates the current area, productivity and production statistics of major crops in Maharashtra.





Maharashtra is the third largest fertilizer consuming state in the country next to Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Nutrient consumption in Maharashtra in the past decade is given in Fig. 2. The total nutrient consumption declined by 12.5%, from 2.473 million MT during 2012-13 to 2.783 million MT during 2013-14. Total nutrient consumption increased by 3% in Kharif 2013 and 26.7% in Rabi 2013-14 over the respective seasons in the previous year. Kharif : Rabi share in total consumption changed from 60:40 in 2012-13 to 55:45 during 2013-14.

The consumption of N at 1.586 million MT, P₂O₅ at 0.772 million MT and K₂O at 0.425 million MT in 2013-14 registered increase of 15.9%, 7.9% and 9.3%, respectively, over 2012-13. NPK use ratio changed from 3.5:1.8:1 during 2012-13 to 3.7:1.8:1 during 2013-14. The per hectare consumption of total fertilizer nutrients reduced from 112.8 kg to 127 kg during the period. Using the area and production of major crops, the total nutrient (N, P₂O₅ and K₂O) removal by each crop was calculated and a nutrient balance sheet was prepared (table 2).

Table 1: Latest Crop Production Statistics of Maharashtra-2012-13

Parameters	Rice	Wheat	Maize	Total Cereals	Jowar	Total Pulses	Total Foodgrains	Total Oilseeds	Sugarcane	Cotton#
Area	1557	773	822	7301	3162	3274	10575	3806	933	4146
Production	3057	1181	1824	8667.3	1935.3	2306	10973.3	5086.8	69648.1	7655
Productivity	1963	1528	2219	1187	612	704	1038	1337	74650	314

Area ('000 ha); Production ('000 tonnes); Productivity (kg/ha); # Production and Productivity in 1000 bales of 180 kg each

Table 2: Nutrient balance sheet for major crops of Maharashtra (2012-13)

Crop	Area (in '000 ha)	Production (in '000 tonnes)	Nutrient Removal (kg/tonne)			Total Removal (tonnes)
			N	P2O5	K2O	N	P2O5	K2O
Rice	1557	3057	20.1	11.2	30	61445.7	34238.4	91710
Wheat	773	1181	24.4	8.6	32.8	28816.4	10156.6	38736.8
Maize	822	1824	8.2	3.1	15.5	14956.8	5654.4	28272
Total Pulses	3274	2306	40	5	20	92240	11530	46120
Total Oilseeds	3806	5086.8	54	14	46	274687.2	71215.2	233992.8
Sugarcane	933	69648.1	1.7	0.2	2	118401.8	13929.62	139296.2
		Total removal by major crops				590547.9	146724.2	578127.8
		Total fertilizer consumption in Maharashtra				1368290	715820	388510
		Consumption * Efficiency factor				547316	214746	271957
		Balance/Deficit				-43231.9	68021.78	-306171

Efficiency of N=40%; P2O5= 30%; and K2O=70%

*Crop production and fertilizer use data are retrieved from Fertiliser Statistics, 2013-14, The Fertiliser Association of India, New Delhi