The government’s initiative to ask the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) to procure maize in Bihar to halt the declining prices of the commodity following the export ban is bearing fruits.
Following the imposition of maize export ban till October 15 by the government on July 3 as part of containing inflation, the prices of maize crashed from Rs 732 per quintal to Rs 500-600 per quintal in Bihar.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar subsequently wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking the removal of export ban or else to allow state procuring agencies to lift the maize produce from farmer.
According to Poultry Federation of India (PFI), after the recent ban on maize exports, the prices have fallen from Rs 9,600 per tonne prevailing two months back to Rs 8,700 per tonne. On the other hand, due to significant rise in exports of soyameal, the prices have gone up to Rs 22,000 per tonne from Rs 16,000 per tonne prevalent six 0months back.