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Crops and cropping systems

Out of total cultivable land in Maharashtra about 60% land is under food grain crops, and
Maharashtra contribute only 5.8% production of food grains in India because Sorghum is
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dominating crop but its yield is low (583 kg ha ). Maharashtra is major producer of
SorghumandArhar contributing 46.0 and 29.1%, respectively to the total production of India. It is
second largest producer of Cotton (22.2%), Soybean (28.1%), and total cereals (13.5%) in the
country.Fruit crops like mandarin, sweet orange, banana, mango, cashew, guava, grapes,
pomogranate, custard apple are also grown. Main annual crop of the state is sugarcane.

Fertilizer consumption

Maharashtra ranks third with share of 11% fertilizer consumption in all India with an average
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NPK consumption of 126 kg ha . Overall NPK use ratio of Maharashtra is 7.3:4:1. Most of the
fertilizers including urea, DAP, SSP, MOP and various grades of NP/NPK fertilizers are being
used in Maharashtra State. In different soils of Maharashtra, application of sulphur containing
and micronutrients fertilizers is also used for various crops. Total consumption of N, P 2O 5 and
K 2O was 15,42,226, 7,99,406 and 4,64,499 tonnes, respectively, and consumption of ZnSO 4 was
14,200 and 4,650 tonnes in Kharif and Rabi season, respectively in 2016-17.