“Contest : Experience with agricultural product markets”

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Farming in my locality is one of the major practices by the majority of families. It helps to ease the expenses we make on a daily basis, especially on food. Agricultural practices are extremely common in my locality. We majorly dwell on corn/maize, cassava, tomatoes, pepper, yams, vegetables and so many others. But the major one of them all is corn.

I planted corn around March/April this year. The harvest was quite bountiful. I was very happy, hoping to get a huge amount of profit.

Corn season starts as early as January/February. Corn is almost an all-year-round agricultural product in my locality. There is always a constant supply of this particular agricultural produce. The demand is very high. Most farmers hardly bring their produce to the market because buyers tend to purchase it from the farm. Others, like us, whose harvests are not based on mechanical farming, take theirs to the market.

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Those that buy directly from the farm come to the market to sell theirs at a higher price. This often makes the pricing fluctuate.

The general sellers often buy from those that bought directly from farmers. Their channel has made corn prices fair and affordable. This is because there's high demand and supply.

The local administrators usually monitor the prices of goods. They tend to control all the activities of traders and suppliers. The day I went to sell my produce, I had to buy a ticket for two hundred naira, equivalent to one steem, in order to get a stand from the local administrators. When I had done that, a woman came to buy a sack bag of the corn. She priced so low that I got upset. Another woman came and told me she would have to peel off my corn before finalising the price. I told her that it is not possible. I finally sold the corn at a fair price.

However, what baffles me is that most buyers tend to gain more than we the farmers. At the end of the day, they make a profit triple the cost of purchasing a small bag of corn.

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Nonetheless, there is always profit in agricultural produce. The suffering may be much, but the bountiful harvest surely gives more morale for more farming.

Let's prepare for upcoming planting season.
@abdul-rakib
‎@okere-blessing
@ngoenyi
@mercybliss

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