Maize farmers promise adequate supplies in 2018

The Maize Growers, Processors and Markets Association of Nigeria (MAGPAMAN) says that it will ensure adequate supply of maize to support market demands in 2018.

The President of MAGPAMAN, Dr Edwin Uche, gave the assurance in Abuja on Wednesday at the stakeholders meeting of the association.

He said that the association faced a lot of challenges relating to armyworm infestation of maize farms in 2017, which consequently resulted in the importation of maize to meet local demands.

“We, as an association, are doing all we can to ensure that in 2018, maize farmers are able to grow enough maize to support the market. That is why we are holding the stakeholders’ meeting.

“Following the armyworm outbreak in 2017 which affected a lot of maize farms across the country, stakeholders resorted to massive maize importation.

“Most private companies started importing maize to support their production because they all have production targets.

“If you can’t meet your production target and there is no enough maize in the country; what else can you do? You have to source the produce from other places.

“Most companies have no option than to engage neighbouring countries by importing maize and that somewhat helped to cushion the effect of the shortfall in maize production.

“Maize constitutes about 70 per cent of poultry feed component. We want to address some of these existing issues and gaps in the sector; we want to tackle some of the challenges facing our members across the country.

“We want to use the medium to interact with other stakeholders who are key players in the system to ascertain how we can collaborate to see that maize farmers get the best inputs to support their cultivation, ” he said.

Uche, however, said that the greatest challenge facing maize farmers was the issue of market, adding that after harvests; most maize farmers often did not have access to market to sell their produce.

He said that the association was planning to expand the farmers’ access to market at any given time so as to boost their income and improve their living standards.

He said that the association was striving to assist its members to benefit maximally from maize production, while using it as a veritable channel of poverty reduction and job creation.

Uche, nonetheless, urged the Federal Government to give more support to commodity associations, saying that the associations were closer to farmers and people at the grassroots.

He said that the associations were in a better position to understand the farmers’ problems and provide pragmatic solutions to them.

Also speaking, Mr Inuwa Ibrahim, Commercial Officer, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, noted that Nigerian maize was usually exported to neighbouring countries without following proper channels, adding that the development had been detrimental to the nation’s economy.

Ibrahim urged the stakeholders at the meeting to educate maize farmers in their various localities on modern farming techniques in order to boost production to meet local demand for maize.

He said that in his local community in Adamawa during the maize season, up to 15 to 20 truckloads of maize were daily transported out of the community to unknown destinations.

He said that maize consignments were probably ferried to neighbouring countries and sold at giveaway prices, further impoverishing maize farmers in the process.

Ibrahim noted that Gov. Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State recently made a call for a total ban of maize importation into the country.

He stressed that this was a good development, saying that would help the country become self-sufficient in maize production.