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Feature: Regulatory weighing measures & designated markets, a benchmark for improved maize production in Ghana
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Feature: Regulatory weighing measures & designated markets, a benchmark for improved maize production in Ghana

Maize is by far the most important cereal crop in Ghana, exceeding total output and acreage planted for rice, millet and sorghum put together and the number one staple crop followed by rice, and domestic demand for both is growing.

     However, the country is not self-sufficient in this most important staple crop, as Ghana has experienced average shortfalls in domestic maize supplies of about 12 percent in recent years.
   
     Maize production is currently dominated by smallholder farmers who rely on rain-fed conditions with limited use of improved seeds, fertilizer, mechanization, post-harvest facilities and climate information.
     
     As a result, average yields in Ghana are well below attainable levels and post-harvest losses are high due to lack of storage facilities. 

     The population in sub-Saharan Africa is predicted to increase to over 
one billion by 2025 and in order to meet the food requirements of the increased population, and achieve food security, agricultural production would need to increase significantly yearly.

     These advances will need to be made with the added constraint of climate variability and change. 

    Climate change will potentially affect the lives of people in many ways, particularly in Ghana where many poor smallholder farmers depend on agriculture for their livelihood with very limited alternatives of earning a living.

     Globally, maize is the world’s third most important crop after rice and wheat and about half of it is grown in developing countries.

     Statistics 

    Though the crop is adapted to nearly all the agro-ecological zones of Ghana, production is concentrated in the forest-savanna transition zone - Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Eastern Regions.

    According to statistics, the area annually planted to maize in Ghana averaged about 650,000 hectares and consumption is concentrated in the southern regions, particularly in Greater Accra, where it is a traditional staple.

    This tends to magnify its perceived significance as a food security crop. 

    Maize and other cereals account for about 60 percent and 50 percent of the calorie supply of rural and urban households respectively (World Bank, 1992).  

   As Ghana gears up for globalization in pursuit of national development, grains standardization is one of the strategies for modernizing the agriculture sector, particularly, in improving the efficiency and global competitiveness of the maize industry.

    This is in line with the deregulation and trade liberalization policies of the country as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) (World Bank, 2011). 

    Ghana’s maize market did not escape the commodity price crisis that engulfed global commodity markets in the 2007 to 2010 period.

    The price range in the 2007/08 crop year, for example, was GHS35.35 per 100kg compared to GHS12.51 in the previous crop year, and GHS17.91 two crop years later.

    This turbulent year (2007/08) also posted the highest variability in market prices, with a standard deviation of GHS11.76 and a coefficient of variation of 32.6 percent, the highest estimated in the last five crop years. 

    Indeed, the variability in prices in all other crop years was in the single digit, according to the World Bank. 

  Domestic Distribution 

     Domestic maize production seems to be meeting the local demand for human consumption.

     The maize supply in Ghana has been increasing steadily over the past few years with an average supply at 1.4 million Metric tons (Mt) over the period 2005-2010.

     However, human consumption is competing with the poultry industry and to a lesser extent the livestock industry.

     While there is no reliable data for maize used in animal feed, the Government of Ghana estimates that 85 percent of all maize grown in Ghana is destined for human consumption and the remaining 15 percent is used for the animal feeding sector (mainly poultry).

     Data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) shows that about 250,000Mt of maize is used for poultry feed annually in Ghana.

  Situation in Brong-Ahafo Region

     Anecdotal evidence obtained from Brong Ahafo indicates yield increases of about 50 percent due to due to fertiliser application at recommended rates.

    In the Offuman maize district of the Brong Ahafo Region for instance, yields of up to 4.8 tons are reported by farmers applying fertiliser and the average for such farms is claimed to be 4.06 tons.

    Average yield in the major maize producing districts of the Brong Ahafo Region as a whole is around 2.9 tons.

     Report however shows that yields drop within 1.5 tons and 2.0 tons without the use of fertilizer and this situation contrasts with the general picture of low incremental returns to fertiliser utilisation in maize production in Ghana.

      Because of production’s dependence on increasingly erratic rainfall conditions, total market conditions for maize tend to follow the direct impact of these rainfall conditions on production.

     The situation is exacerbated frequently by the poor or non‐existent post‐harvest management infrastructure, and conditions in the country.

    Even in periods of good moisture conditions, inefficient storage systems often result in price pressures arising from glut at harvest time and non‐availability towards the end of the season.

     Techiman Municipality serves as one of the main feeder markets in Ghana because of the maize coming from the main producing areas in Brong-Ahafo.

    From Techiman, the maize is then directed to Accra and or Bolgatanga at the border with Burkina Faso, and or Cote d’Ivoire.

    Problem 

    Standard weight measures are usually not used, the measure being somewhat subjectively based on type and age of sack used in the Ghanaian market thereby exposing maize growers to exploitation.

     Loaders, therefore, play the additional role of being arbiters in weight disputes, and this gives a group of loaders’ considerable power in the market, with their fees reflecting not only loading charges, but also their ‘commission as agents’ of traders.

     The impact of the price decline that occurs in the first three to four months after harvest has significant impact on producer incomes and probably insignificant effect on consumer food security situation in the Brong Ahafo Region and Ghana.

    Also, the lack of standardisation of the bags used by traders to buy their maize creates opportunities for the traders to ‘cheat’ farmers by often using ‘oversized’ bags.

     This sometimes shows the difficult relationship between the farmers and the market queens/trade associations but subsequently having maize growers at the losing end.

     Generally, maize farmers in the country do not get much returns on the sale of the produce, as buyers use oversized measuring bowls, locally called 'Olonka' and oversized sacks to measure the produce thereby cheating them and causing them to lose income by over 15 percent.

    As a result of these, the farmers do not get the full benefits from their toils. 

    For instance, for every three bags sold, the buyer gets one extra bag and the farmers in turn lose same (one bag), since their activities are unregulated.

    It is purported that bye-laws have been enacted and enforced on standard measures of maize on sale in Ejura in the Ejura/Sekyedumase Municipality of the Ashanti Region, and this has been very helpful to farmers in that area.

Maize Price Determination

    After the liberalisation of maize market in 1990, an open market price system is in operation - price of maize depends mainly on demand and supply.

    However, prices are also influenced by price information and crop flows within and outside the area. 

    The impact of maize prices on consumers and producers’ welfare cannot be underestimated and basically price variability has two kinds of problems - seasonal fluctuations in producer price levels lead to a general income problem while year-to-year variations around the moving price level leads to the problem of uncertainty.

    When producer price levels either rise or fall in absolute terms, this leads to negative consequences for either consumers or farmers. 

    In the case of price uncertainty, where a commodity may rise one year and fall the next, farmers are required to make planning decisions without knowing the following years’ price, which can lead to the inefficient distribution of resources. 

     Advocacy

     The low and instability in prices of maize is negatively affecting the economic activities of maize farmers in the Brong-Ahafo Region.

     Thanks to the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund which has intervene to support maize growers to remove all bottleneck impeding their economic activities and fetch them good and stable price for their produce.

     With assistance from the Center of Posterity Interest Organisation (COPIO), a Non-governmental organisation, and service providers, the Brong-Ahafo Maize Farmers Association has been able to secure GHC83,000 BUSAC grant to implement an advocacy project in the region.

     The seven-month project aimed at helping to identify and remove bottlenecks impeding the economic activities of the farmers.

     Nana Kwao Adams, the Chairman of the BAMGA said the nation needed a uniformed weighing scale to control the market price of maize, and appealed to the government to intervene

     He said many of the maize growers were unhappy that because they lacked storage facilities to preserve their produce, retailers and middlemen took advantage of that and bought the product at cheaper prices during bumper harvest.

    Retailers and middlemen, according to the Chairman bought a bag of maize from the farmers using the size-five sack, which is 135kg, and later used the size four sack to sell the produce to their advantage.

   He commended BUSAC for the support, and appealed to all relevant institutions to join the advocacy to bring significant change in the maize sector.  

Way forward

     Dr John Yaw Akparep, a researcher and lecturer at the University of Development Studies (UDS) called for government’s intervention to fix prices of maize.

      This, he noted could be done if the government ensured that proper weighing standards as in bowls and sacks used in the markets protect the farmers’ interest. 

     Enacting and enforcing bye-laws on standard measures of maize such 
as price per kilo on sale across all markets in the country is strongly required to ensure that maize farmers get fair prices for their produce.

     Dr Akparep also called for designated maize markets where standard weighing scales would be used to measure the produce for sale as outlets to the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) to address the problem.

    This will introduce competition into the purchase of the product and thus compel the other buyers to comply to fixed weights and prices.

    Mr Mustapha Yeboah-Maison, the CEO of COPIO, called on the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) to  monitor weighing scales and pricing arrangements of maize regularly to ensure compliance to measurement regulations in the purchase of the product. 

    In addition, the government should ensure that public and private financial institutions advanced credit facilities to smallholder maize farming households in the country at large. 

    This will push smallholder maize farmers become more financial dependent, rather than pre-financing from maize traders, which results in exploitation.

    
 
By: By K Peprah

Source: www.watchghana.com

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