Maize |
| Posted by ASCE (admin) on Wednesday, 9th January, 2008 at 6:36 AM |
Introduction
Maize is one of the staples widely grown in Nigeria. However, its production is more in the Northern part of the country than in the South, which is largely forest in nature with heavy rainfall. The maize grown in the southern part of Nigeria is rain fed while that grown in the Northern part of the country is an admixture of rain fed and irrigation. Because of the scanty rainfall in the northern part of the country, maize growers support their production with fertilizer and water from irrigation. Maize as a cereal crop is high yielding, easy to process and readily digested. It is a versatile crop that grows across a range of agroecological zones. That might explain why almost all farmers in Nigeria grow maize.
Maize is one of the most important cereals in the world. Maize has the highest world average yield per hectare among cereals followed by rice, wheat and millet. Maize has its significance as a source of a large number of industrial products besides its uses as human food and animal feed. Over 50% of the population in the Sub-Saharan Africa has maize as a staple food. It is an important source of carbohydrate, protein, iron, vitamin B and minerals. Africans consume maize as a starchy base in a wide variety of porridges, pastes, grits and beer. Green maize (fresh on the cob) is eaten parched, baked, roasted or boiled and plays an important role in serving as a stable menu for the downtrodden masses.
Variety
There are principally two types of maize that are produced in Nigeria yellow and white maize. The two varieties of maize are grown in all the parts of the country in almost equal proportion. A gram of these varieties of maize contains between 5 - 6 grains.
Command Markets For Maize in Nigeria
Nigerian Maize is traded both locally and internationally with a considerable percentage filtering into Niger, Chad, Mali, Benin Republic and some other countries in the West African subregion. Locally, white and yellow maize are sold almost in all markets in Nigeria with the commanding markets for the commodity being Dawanau market in Kano, Dandume and Jibia market in Katsina, Giwa Market in Kaduna,Shinkafi and Talata Mafara in Zamfara, Bodija in Ibadan, Ose Market at Onitsha and Mile 12 Market in Lagos.
Production of Maize
Nigeria produces annually over 6 million tones out of 624million tones of maize produced worldwide. The world major producers of maize are USA followed by China and Brazil. The world trade in maize in the year 2002-3 was estimated at 75.85 m MT. The major exporters are USA, China, Argentina, Brazil, Hungary and South Africa. The major importers of the same product during the same period ware Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Egypt and Taiwan. Nigeria does not participate much in the world trade in maize due to its high domestic demand pressure on the maize for industrial uses, animal feeds and consumption.
Uses of Maize
Maize is used as food in form of porridges of different types, boiled or roasted, corn flakes and popped grains.
More than 60% of the Nigeria's production of maize is consumed by the industrial sector for production of flour, beer, malt drink, corn flakes, starch, syrup, dextrose and animal feeds
Maize plant can be used both as dry fodders and green fodders.
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