Pressure is mounting on government to act as fears of a looming maize shortage grow.
At Ejura, bags of maize are rotting away as farmers struggle to find buyers.
Weeks without rain have worsened the situation, leaving farmlands parched and forcing many producers to consider abandoning cultivation for the next season.
The Ejura market in the Ashanti region is one of Ghana’s largest trading hubs for cereals and grains.
From groundnuts and beans to rice and maize, the market supplies thousands of households across the country and beyond.
But in recent times, maize has seen a sharp decline in sales.
“The fresh maize sells at 500 cedis and the old ones go for 450,” Moisob Jacob, a trader noted.
These new prices coupled with a reclining market sale are presenting challenges to the maize value chain. The farmers and traders are not enthused as they are seen all over haggling the new prices.
Farming is the lifeline of Ejura and its surrounding communities.
On a scorching afternoon, Iddrisu Mumuni and his family are busy drying freshly harvested maize. They spread the grains across a tarpaulin, relying on sun and air to reduce the moisture content.
With no storage facilities, the family must rush to package and sell the maize on the next market day. But for Iddrisu, the returns hardly match the effort he invests in production.
“The maize business isn’t good now. For rich farmers, they are able to keep theirs. But for us who have no storage facility, we must sell immediately,” he said.
After the 2024 drought, the cost of maize has seen more than a 100% reduction from its initial 1,200 cedis to a paltry 400 cedis on the market.
But the exorbitant production cost is fueling discontent among farmers.
After the 2024 drought, the price of maize has fallen – falling by more than half, from 1,200 cedis to just 400 cedis on the market. Yet, with production costs soaring, the sharp decline has left many farmers frustrated and disillusioned.
“It should cost you 300 cedis to plough an acre of land. Fertilizer also costs 600 cedis. The harvester would also take 40 cedis. With all these costs, if you do not sell at 600 cedis but rather 300 cedis you will run at a loss,” Mr. Mumuni noted.
Another farmer corroborated: “If the production cost was reduced, we wouldn’t have problems. But it’s expensive. The time the prices would increase, we will not be cultivating. So, this is the time we need better prices”.
Ghana experiences a glut of maize during the main crop season, from June to September. But despite the bustle and noise of the crowded Ejura market, traders say business has been slow – and their pockets tell the story.
“The market is bad. This maize can be here for two weeks without being sold. Some people also deliberately wait until the market is about ending then they come ask of the price at a lower cost,” Adams Mahama, a trader noted.
A wholesaler, Saratu, was in the market to buy some bags of maize to be transported to her customers in Sekondi-Takoradi. During the lean season, she makes good sales, but the recent development is biting hard on her pockets and on a business.
“Market is low. In past, you would struggle to get maize. My customers tell me the market is bad. The people I owe are demanding their money from me. We are unhappy about this,” she said.
Ordinarily, traders cash in during the lean season with such bumper harvests.
The traders attribute the dwindling sales to the suspension of imports restriction and the recent ban on exports after the 2024 drought.
“We’ve heard the government has imported some maize, that’s why the market is slow for us. In past, everyone was happy about farming in this community because it was lucrative. You could get at least 5000 cedis from maize. But the same cannot be said now. The poultry farmers usually buy from us. If the government is importing for them, then it would affect us,” one of the traders highlighted.
Despite export bans on maize and other grains from neighbouring countries like Burkina Faso, Ghana’s corn imports are projected to rise sharply in the 2025/2026 marketing year – reaching 500,000 metric tonnes.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2025 Grain and Feed Annual Report, this marks a 67 percent jump over the 2024/2025 estimate.
The surge in imports has pushed prices down, bringing some relief to consumers and agribusinesses. But for local farmers, the policy has sparked deep concern.
“Looks as if stealing is better than farming. Everytime they are talking about cocoa and would neglect us. Our work is more hectic than the cocoa farmers,” Adams lamented.
The frustration on the market is preempting the farmers from producing more.
While some have opted to hoard the grains at home, others are compelled to leave the heaps of their maize harvest on their farms, at the mercy of the weather.
Salifu Al-Samin farms on a 40-acre maize plantation.
“This maize has been here for almost two weeks now. We don’t see the need transporting it home. What we have at home haven’t been purchased,” he noted.
There are stalls at the market serving as storage facilities for the small-holder farmers who are unable to sell their produce by the close of the market day.
In these stalls, bags of maize continue to pile up every market day, hoping for a better price in the subsequent days.
Kamil Abubakari is one of the leaders at the facility.
“They are keeping these bags of maize here until there is a better price. This is from December last year. The person was hoping to get a better price this year but it hasn’t been good so we are still keeping it here,” he said.
Few kilometers away from the market square sits one of the largest warehouses, located in the heart of Ejura Township.
The facility usually buzzes with trucks and wholesalers ready to cart large quantities of maize to the city centres during the market days.
But today, it is filled with silence. The bags of maize harvested months ago continue to rest on the pallets lined up in the facility.
Former Member of Parliament for Ejura, Mohammed Issifu Pangabu, is one of the lead farmers in the community.
“We don’t have to politicize the agriculture sector. No farmer will be able to break even with the current prices on the market,” he said.
This persistently troubling situation has sparked grave concerns for an immediate practical solution for a suitable pricing regime.
While the traders anxiously await buyers, the government says it is working to absorb the excess production from the local farmers.
As the traders endure the slow market, a more pressing concern emerges – delayed rains.
District Director of Agriculture at Ejura, Ben Leo Addah says “for the past two weeks there hasn’t been rains”.
This is felt on the fields where the soils are drying up already before farmers can plant for the next season.
Salifu Al-Samin was fortunate to have started cultivating on his 40-acre farmland.
Although the crop is in its early stages of growth, he must halt the application of fertilizers because there are no rains.
“Majority farmers at Ejura haven’t been able to plant for the next season because there is no moisture in the ground for fertilizer application,” he said.
The changing weather pattern is prompting a looming shortage of the local maize on the market.
“Maize will be late in the coming season. But the farmers can diversify into other crop productions like cowpea for more income,” Mr. Leo Addah noted.
With the new crop season approaching, many farmers had hoped to reinvest proceeds from maize into cowpea production. But that hope now feels far-fetched. For Iddrisu Mumuni, dwindling returns from maize sales mean he may not be able to grow cowpea at all this year – a prospect that leaves him deeply worried.
“We want to grow cowpeas. But we need the proceeds from the maize to cultivate the cowpeas. If we are unable to get it, then it means we won’t get beans next year,” he said.
Without a lasting solution to these existential challenges of poor pricing regime and rain-fed agriculture, Ghana will continue to lose out on the potentials of the sector.
But until an immediate intervention, these farmers may have to grapple with the poor market sales and struggle to feed the country.
Source: Emmanuel Bright Quaicoe
