#Thread
Maize is planted by farmers all over Nigeria because of its value as food for humans and animals; both fresh, dried and powdered.
Its also a source of starch
Nigeria is Africa's largest
With 6-10m hectares of land under maize cultivation in Nigeria, it is appalling that our yield per hectare of land is under 1.8 tons
South Africa's yield per hectare is 4 tons, while Thailand's is 4.28 tons for comparison
But in most cases the best farmers only get 2 cycles per annum because of reliance on rain
Now to the crux of the reason why maize prices fluctuate wildly every year
Why?
Because of lack of preservation facilities
You see, in Nigeria, most maize is dried in the way our ancestors did it before colonisation
1. Either by allowing it dry on the cob
The lack of efficiency in these techniques means that the maize produced is of poor quality & often infected by aflatoxins & other unhealthy microbes
A solution is a cost effective mechanical dryer
By drying 1.5 tons daily, an entrepreneur can make a profit by transporting the dryer from one farm to the other
engineeringforchange.org/solutions/prod…
At one machine per 450 tons per annum, there is an opening for up to 70,000 of such
The fabricators who will also manufacture the dryers will also benefit from demand.
With proper preservation and more stable demand for maize, farmers will be
As always, the problem with our maize value chain (just like other crops) is lack of uniform standards and quality which dampens industrial demand
If we can fix the quality of output through effective preservation, supply will go up and prices will stabilize.
This will also lead to increased yield.
The above facilities should be able to produce 10,000 of the dryers each, which various cooperatives & farmers groups can buy outright or with the aid of NIRSAL or commercial loans