Maize trade is expected to see a massive improvement. This follows the ongoing rehabilitation exercise at one of the largest trading points of the commodity in the country --Techiman Maize Market in the Brong Ahafo Region, B&FT has gathered.

The reconstruction activity at the Techiman maize market includes erection of shelves and floor pavement to help manage and preserve the quality of maize at the market centre. The exercise forms part of an ongoing “market-oriented agriculture programme” being jointly implemented by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

The project when completed will elevate the status of the market as an excellent maize trading centre in the country. The market is the sales point for farmers from the major maize production areas in Brong Ahafo like Atebubu,Wenchi, Nkoranza and Kintampo, and attracts traders from across the country as well as some other countries in the sub-region.

Traders at the market have welcomed the development, describing it as “a necessary intervention” with the potential of transforming the maize business at the market. Hajia Fatima Alidu, a trader, told B&FT: “All this while we have been trading under the mercy of the weather, and sometimes when it rains we lose a significant quantity of the commodity; because we also trade on the bear floor, gravel sometimes mixes with the maize, compromising its quality”.

Dr. Cyril Quist, Brong-Ahafo Regional MoFA Director in an interview with B&FT, said the move among other interventions is geared toward reducing post-harvest loses by creating an appropriate and conducive business environment for traders.

He said that in an effort to improve the maize value chain, construction of a warehouse for aggregators is underway at Badu in the Tain district, adding: “Aside from the infrastructural revolution, traders are also expected to be introduced to using weighing scales to ensure standardisation in the trade -- and book-keeping as well”.

With the exception of poultry farmers, maize buyers in the region and other parts of the country are noted for the use of varied sacks as a measure of weight; the situation has over the years deepened the vulnerability of farmers, who are the greater losers to the practice.

Dr. Quist has therefore urged all Municipal and District Assemblies of maize growing communities to enact by-laws to back the use of standardised weighing scales in their various jurisdictions in order to promote equity in the maze trade. He mentioned Nkoranza as one area where the use of weighing scales has so far ensured even-handedness between farmers and buyers.