Maize farmers in the Sissala enclave are in limbo as prices of their maize produce have fallen drastically from GH₵500.00 to GH₵200 per 100kg bag this harvest season.

What is expected to be a season of hope for the farmers and customers/clients alike has turned into a nightmare for thousands of the farmers as the price of maize dips.

Several bags of maize sent to the Tumu market for sale were left unsold and abandoned as buyers were not available while those who bargained to buy priced 100kg bag for GH₵200.00.

The dip, nearly a 60 per cent fall, had left farmers in the Sissala area facing what many described as their “worst year in decades.”

The Sissala area, spanning parts of the Sissala East, Sissala West, and Wa East Districts in the Upper West Region, had been noted for producing good maize in Ghana.

Mr Adinan Bajin, a commercial maize farmer from Welembelle in the Sissala East Municipality, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), described the situation as a “near doom” for them, especially the youth who considered farming as a job.

He said some young people in the area, including himself, took loans to cultivate their fields and the drop in prices had left them in despair.

“I don’t know how I will repay the loan I took from the bank and other people (labourers) who supported me in the farm,” Mr Bajin lamented.

Some farmers also expressed the worry that the cost of production soared this year while the market price had crashed.

A 50kg bag of fertilizer was sold about GH₵600, and with ploughing, labour, seeds, and other inputs, the average farmer spent close to GH₵5,000 per acre, yet, the returns barely cover the cost of harvesting.

“Buyers are offering just GH₵200 per bag. It doesn’t make sense, we’re better off leaving the maize on the farm,” Mr Shaibu Haruna, another farmer in Bujan, lamented.

With warehouses already filled with last year’s unsold produce, some farmers said this season’s harvest, which was expected to add an estimated one million tonnes from the three districts, could rot away if no market intervention was provided.

Alhaji Kasim observed that maize farmers in the area were increasing but the market for the produce was reducing and said if the trend in market reduction continued, they would stop maize cultivation.

He noted: “the seeds alone I bought stood around GH₵375,000 and that’s without ploughing, weedicide, fertilizer and other factors of production.

Yields of other crops, including, sesame had also been poor this year, with many farmers unable to harvest more than 200kg per acre due to poor seed quality and erratic rainfall experienced within the season.

The situation had been compounded by a continued government ban on the export of soybeans, which had left the market flooded and prices depressed.

Mr Mahama Salifu, the Sissala East Municipal Director of Agriculture, warned that the rural economy could face severe hardship without urgent intervention, such as guaranteed pricing and export support.

He added that the grain-buying programmes announced by the Buffer Stock Company of the GH₵100 million to buy excess maize could also help salvage the situation.

Mr Eric Tergu, a veterinary officer with the Department of Agriculture, said that the government policy on poultry production, “nkoko nkitinkiti,” if started, could have been an avenue to mop up the excess maize produced by the farmers in the area.

“Farming is the lifeblood of these communities, the state must do everything to sustain the interest of the farmers here,” he observed.