Posted on August, 2, 2018 at 11:53 am
The government is to buy 500,000 metric tones of maize from farmers hit by the plummeting market prices across the country. MPs last week decried the continued decline of the maize prices across the country which is currently below Sh 200 per kilogramme. They tasked the Government with taking action to halt further price decline.
Last year, Uganda produced about 4.6 million Metric Tonnes of maize in the two seasons. An agro- business expert applauded the move by the Government to buy the maize at Sh 500 per kilogramme. The Sh 500 per kilogramme is a reasonable price. It is slightly above the breakeven price, the expert said. The trade minister Amelia Kyambadde while presenting a joint statement with the agriculture ministry to Parliament yesterday said the Government will provide funding from the Agriculture Credit Fund to procure the maize. According to Kyambadde the money will be advanced to cooperatives and members of the Grain council of Uganda to buy maize. However Kyambadde did not indicate when the purchase would commence.
Source the New Vision, Wednesday, August 1, 2018 Page 6
Implications of maize price drop
Maize is one of the 12 agricultural commodities that the Government considers to have the potential to remarkably contribute to increasing rural incomes and improving livelihoods, food and nutrition security. Maize doubles as a cash and food crop for most smallholder farmers
Source: New Vision | Wednesday, August 1, 2018 | Page 16