Maize farmgate prices in freefall
Dec 11, 2006
FARMERS want the Government to set up a regulatory body to stabilise fluctuating maize prices.
By Alice Kiingi and Peter Kaujju
FARMERS want the Government to set up a regulatory body to stabilise fluctuating maize prices.
Maize farmgate prices have dropped to between sh30 and sh50 per kilogramme from between sh80 and sh100, the previous season.
Agnes Kirabo, a documentation officer at the Volunteer Efforts for Development Concern, a local NGO, said last week that farmers’ livelihoods could not improve if they continued earning low prices for their produce.
Kirabo said real annual income losses to price fluctuations per household had increased since the market was liberalised in the 1990s.
She said the Government should support farmers’ cooporatives to develop large storage facilities to minimise post-harvest losses and ensure quality control.
Abel Ngomayondi, a farmer, said subjecting farmers entirely to market forces had exposed them to low and unstable price risks.
He said this had consequences at the national and farm levels.
“The reason given by traders for low prices is poor quality of maize. But they do not offer any premium for quality maize,†Ngomayondi said. He said farmers should access formal credit facilities through group lending.
The Makerere University agricultural economics department in its research findings, recommend that the Government institutionalises a system of grades to enforce quality standards for commodities.
This should be through educating farmers about the acceptable levels of moisture content, broken grain and foreign matter, the findings said.
A survey done by Oxfam, a UK NGO, says drying maize to obtain quality product, was still a problem.
m. This is because 38% of farmers dry their maize in the field, 28% on bare soil, 6% on tarpaulins, while only 17% use wire mesh.
FARMERS want the Government to set up a regulatory body to stabilise fluctuating maize prices.
Maize farmgate prices have dropped to between sh30 and sh50 per kilogramme from between sh80 and sh100, the previous season.
Agnes Kirabo, a documentation officer at the Volunteer Efforts for Development Concern, a local NGO, said last week that farmers’ livelihoods could not improve if they continued earning low prices for their produce.
Kirabo said real annual income losses to price fluctuations per household had increased since the market was liberalised in the 1990s.
She said the Government should support farmers’ cooporatives to develop large storage facilities to minimise post-harvest losses and ensure quality control.
Abel Ngomayondi, a farmer, said subjecting farmers entirely to market forces had exposed them to low and unstable price risks.
He said this had consequences at the national and farm levels.
“The reason given by traders for low prices is poor quality of maize. But they do not offer any premium for quality maize,†Ngomayondi said. He said farmers should access formal credit facilities through group lending.
The Makerere University agricultural economics department in its research findings, recommend that the Government institutionalises a system of grades to enforce quality standards for commodities.
This should be through educating farmers about the acceptable levels of moisture content, broken grain and foreign matter, the findings said.
A survey done by Oxfam, a UK NGO, says drying maize to obtain quality product, was still a problem.
m. This is because 38% of farmers dry their maize in the field, 28% on bare soil, 6% on tarpaulins, while only 17% use wire mesh.