Maize marketing system

Abstract

Challenges facing maize farmers are alarming in the Uganda as a nation. Maize marketing has become a challenge covering a bigger percentage. In this study, we focus mostly on the largescale maize growers and largescale maize buyers to find quick market within the Ugandan geographic boundaries. Maize is a staple food for millions of people in Uganda and it is a source of income for many farmers (Crop Life International, 2023). Maize farmers and maize wholesalers dealing in maize crop and products were to be supported by this system in marketing decisions. The farmers were to be provided with information on which wholesale businesses were paying the highest prices for the maize and the traders were to get information on the availability of the maize from the large-scale farmers. This information was also useful for various types of organizations such as development organizations, researchers and government. Development organizations could use this information for developing community support programs and better tuning their technical assistance to the needs of maize farmers while Government would find this information useful for developing policies and state’s support programs. The main objective of this study was to develop a Maize Marketing System which was achieved through the different specific aims which included; gathering requirements for the Maize Marketing System, designing the model for the system, implementing the system, testing and lastly validating the Maize marketing System. The methodology involved the use of agile methodology which is an iterative development methodology majorly enabling the largescale maize farmers and largescale maize wholesalers to interact. This report is a detailed combination of all activities we engaged in while developing the maize marketing system. During the data collection and analysis phase, the respondents were from various regions of the country majorly Mubende district. The sample constituted of 7 large scale maize farmers, 10 large scale maize wholesalers, 6 system managers and 3 representatives from the regulatory bodies. These people were selected because they were directly involved into maize farming, available, accessible and their responses were important to clearly understand their issues, concerns and demands to our system. The system was developed using agile methods that involved iterative methods of development. A prototype was developed, tested and validated.