Maize farmers ask cereals board to shield them from middlemen

Maize farmers have called on the Agriculture Ministry to save them from exploitation by cartels.

Desperate parents, who urgently need cash to pay school fees for their children, are being exploited by the middlemen who are buying maize from them at lower prices.

This comes in the wake of an announcement by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) that the Agriculture Ministry would not release more funds for the purchase of maize.

The cereals board has instead advised farmers to embrace the warehouse receipt system.

Many farmers are left with no alternative but to sell their stocks at throw-away prices.

“I have two students to take to Form One and I can only raise their fees by selling maize,” says Mr Paul Maiyo, a farmer in Uasin Gishu County.

Mr Maiyo explains that he cannot take his maize to the NCPB under the warehouse receipt system because he needs the money urgently to take his children to school.

The farmer says he has been forced to sell his stock at Sh2,600 per 90kg bag down from Sh 3,000 that the NCPB has been offering.

The situation is worse in Cherangani, Trans-Nzoia County, where a bag of maize is going for between Sh1,500 and Sh1,800, half of what the cereals board is paying.

According to Mr Fredrick Muhorela, a farmer in Trans Nzoia, brokers from as far as central Kenya have invaded the area buying maize cheaply from farmers who urgently need the cash.

“There are so many middlemen right now in this area who are capitalising on our urgent need for cash to exploit us, and because the cereals board is not paying cash on delivery, we prefer to sell at a throw-away price,” says Muhorela.

He says the middlemen sometimes offer Sh1,800 for a 90kg bag of maize if one is lucky.

Increased supply

“When we ask them why they are buying cheaply, they say that millers have reduced their buying price and that there is plenty of maize in the market,” says the farmer.

A spot check by the Nation in various milling companies revealed that most had stopped buying maize and the few still doing so were paying farmers Sh2,600 for a 90kg bag of maize.

“We stopped buying maize last week but we shall resume today. We have been paying farmers Sh2,800 but we might lower the prices,” said a milling manager who did not want to be named, as he was awaiting official communication from the head office in Nairobi.

Middlemen, who spoke to the Nation, said that although maize supply was high, other factors had also contributed to the drop in maize prices.

“At times we buy maize that is not dry and we have to meet the drying costs by hiring people to dry it for us in the sun,” said Mr John Mwangi, a maize trader.