Farmers cry out as maize prices drop
Traders and farmers negotiate over prices for bags of maize grain in eastern Uganda. Some parts of the region are experiencing an oversupply of maize on the market leading to a drop in prices.
What you need to know:
An expected decrease in the amount of maize produced in three districts in eastern Uganda has been belied by an unexpected oversupply on the market.
Farmers in Budaka, Kibuku and Pallisa Districts are left in a difficult situation after the market prices for maize dropped drastically following increased supply and release of stored grain to the market. The change in price is as much as 20 per cent.
A 100-kilogramme bag of maize is going for between Shs50,000 and Shs55,000 down from Shs60,000 last month. “The pitch of low prices has started to hit us [farmers] and yet the amount we inject in in terms of inputs and cultivation up to the time of harvesting are high. And what we are getting now is just peanuts,” said James Okitiyi, a farmer in Pallisa.
Reduced prices
A random check shown that maize prices, especially in Mbale Town’s Industrial Area, have fallen due to a glut of the commodity on the market. This is normally witnessed when buyers from Kenya come to purchase maize from the Ugandan side. “It is postulated that a further drop in the price of the commodity will be recorded because of a lot of maize on the market,” another farmer, David Mwigo, observed.
Several private buyers in most parts of Mbale, a business hub in the eastern region, are also said to have reduced their buying price by an average of 50 per cent once they notice the presence of the Kenyan traders. Several trucks with Kenyan registration were seen packed or being loaded with maize.
Unpredictable
“The prices have been affected by stable inflow of maize from the local communities and could still decline further as farmers are harvesting more maize. This unpredictable prices continue to demoralise the farmers,” said Moses Kadyama, a farmer from Kibuku District.
However the relatively low prices of maize have not helped to stabilise the prices of maize flour. For instance, a kilogramme of posho now stands at between Shs1,400 to Shs1,600. The ministry of Agriculture, in a report assessing prospects for the short rains crop, said there was increased cross-border trade in this period in 2014 compared to the corresponding one last year.
Speculation
This report indicates that the number of bags that were bought and taken out of the country by the Kenyan traders went up to almost a million. This is in comparison to 200,000 bags in a similar period in 2013.
Farmers who released their stocks to the market with hope of attracting good prices faded with the announcement that there were enough stocks to see the country to the next harvest season. Several people who had grown maize had been holding out for higher prices. This “speculation” was based on the projections that the last season’s production had declined sharply because of erratic rainfall and attacks of the viral disease, maize lethal necrosis.
Bleak picture
Issa Taligola, Pallisa District chairperson, has however, warned the residents not to sell all food as famine continues to loom due to erratic rains. This is indicated by the poor harvests that are being experienced across the entire district. His counterpart in Budaka District, Arthur Wako Mboizi, said the falling prices of maize at farm gate are a huge loss for farmers across the district.
The farmers had a bumper harvest in the season ending 2013/2014 but ironically they are getting very little from the market. Mboizi explained that farmers doubled their efforts in the production of maize after experiencing poor harvest in the season before that. But they are now being frustrated by the declining prices being offered to farmers at Shs 400 per kilo.
