There is no scarcity of maize in the Sunyani Municipality, Mr. John Ofosu Dankyira, the Municipal Director of Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has said.

He said climate change had actually affected rainfall pattern and somehow impacted on maize production in the last farming season, but “that does not mean there is maize shortage in the market.

“There’s abundant maize in the system, so, the supposed price increase of the commodity can only be a creation by some over-profit-making wholesalers, retailers and even farmers”, the Municipal Director said.

Mr Dankyira was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Wednesday in Sunyani in reaction to a claim by some maize traders that there was sharp increase in the market price of maize in the Sunyani Municipality.

He said notwithstanding the erratic rainfall pattern, the government’s policy of Planting for Food and Jobs (PfFJs) had motivated a lot of farmers to venture into maize production, especially public sector workers.

Mr Dankyira implied the PfFJs programme had benefited not only farmers mostly in the private sector, but also government workers, as many of them had taken advantage of it to engage in commercial maize production.

In an earlier interview at the Nana Bosoma market some of the traders said price had increased due to low production of the commodity as a result of erratic rains experienced in parts of the Bono Region in the last farming season.

A bag of maize which used to sell at GH¢200 was now selling between GH¢320 and GH¢350 at the central market, Madam Theresah Opoku, a trader indicated.

Madam Opoku said many maize farmers in local communities had not started planting because of the unpredicted rainfall pattern, saying if that continued then there might be shortage of maize in the season.

Mrs Monica Osei Yeboah, another trader called for a uniformed price for maize so that some traders would not capitalize on the shortage to dupe unsuspecting customers and also appealed for market sheds for maize sellers at the central market.

Another trader, Mrs. Margaret Kyei, explained the market sheds would assemble maize sellers at a particular place and that would enable the city authorities to identify and collect taxes from the sellers.