Government has resolved to support cooperatives and Grain Council of Uganda to buy surplus maize from farmers.
This is contained in a joint statement between the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries and Ministry of Trade about falling maize prices presented to Parliament on Tuesday by Minister of Agriculture, Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja.
In a statement, the minister said Uganda experiences two production seasons in a single year.
The current season came exactly before the prior crop could be completely mopped out of circulation, he said.
As a solution to the problem, the minister said Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development will provide a budget out of Agriculture Credit Fund (ACF) specifically for some Cooperatives and members of the Grain Council of Uganda to buy 500,000MTs from farmers.
“MAAIF, Development Partners and the Private Sector will strengthen Trade Negotiations with EAC & COMESA partner states to promote exports. My ministry will also carry out a comprehensive quality promotion campaigns throughout the country,” he said.
The minister told Parliament that these cyclic fluctuations in Agro-commodity prices is not accidental, at the peak of harvest of crops mainly cereals and grains, prices tend to decline gradually or drastically due to a number of reasons including low prices during a bumper harvest across the country, fluctuating or declining demand by the traditional consumers, undefined markets largely due to lack of reliable market information, unstructured trading due to undeveloped financing and marketing mechanisms and acute lack of standardized storage infrastructure utterly makes the situation worse.
