Maize farmers meet on standard sack

Representatives of maize farmers and dealers from Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regions have met to agree on a guarantee standard sack for the commodity.

The farmers and dealers from Techiman and Nkoranza Municipalities and Atebubu-Amantin District in the Brong-Ahafo Region as well as Ejura-Sekodomase District in Ashanti Region converged at Nkoranza to decide on a guarantee standard sack for maize from the various marketing centres of the four Assemblies.

The meeting followed complaints by the farmers that some middlemen who posed as maize dealers used large sacks to purchase maize from the markets, thereby cheating them.

Mr. Eric Opoku-Agyemang, Chairman of the Ejura Marketing Management Committee, said about 70 per cent of the people in the area were farmers so marketing of maize was the concern of almost all the people.

Mr Opoku-Agyemang said middlemen used larger sacks to buy the maize from the farmers and thereafter refill them into smaller sacks which gave them additional one bag from every 10 bags.

He said their Committee had been tasked to ensure the “size four” standard sack be used in the maize and other cereals like groundnuts, millet and cowpea buying and selling business.

Mr. Opoku-Agyemang noted the use of large sacks in the purchase of maize was adversely affecting revenue mobilization of the Assemblies because that accounted for low sales of maize on market days.