Covid-19, rainfall fluctuation, cause of yellow maize shortage – Agric Ministry

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has revealed that the shortage of yellow maize in the country is due to fluctuation in rainfall and the outbreak of the novel coronavirus last year.

The situation has affected the quality and sizes of eggs on the market since poultry farmers are challenged in getting the yellow maize.

Speaking to Joy Business, Issah Alhassan, Press Secretary to the Agric Ministry said the ministry recorded a little over 1.9 million tones of maize due to the rains which affected production in 2019.

According to him, the expectation this year is to hit 3.0 million tones of maize, judging from what it realized in 2019.

“Last year, we had an issue with production because of the fluctuations in the rainfall and besides that, because of the covid-19.  But for the fact that borders were opened, we were able to export some of the maize to neighboring countries due to the trade relations with ECOWAS”.

Mr. Alhassan is however optimistic that the next harvest season will resolve the issues of shortage of maize.

“We are really concern that we are going to experience these little shortages, but thankfully this should be over soon because in the next few months, we will have harvest coming in to shore up the little shortages that we had.”

He added that the ministry has given a permit for importation of the yellow maize, but the traders realised that it will not be economically prudent to import into the country in the face of a pandemic.

He, therefore, pleaded with consumers and businesses in the sector to “bear with us, since very soon the challenges will be over and things will get back to normal”.