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Jan 04, 2024

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Jul 08, 2020 After 120 days, most varieties are now ready for harvest if one is doing dry grain. To further dry it on the farm, you need another 20 days. To get good quality grain, harvest the maize

Jul 08, 2020

After 120 days, most varieties are now ready for harvest if one is doing dry grain. To further dry it on the farm, you need another 20 days.

To get good quality grain, harvest the maize and store it in a proper storage facility, that is hoisted by at least a foot off the ground.

There are also good cereal storage bags on the market at the moment. Remember that leaving the grain in rain may lead to rotting, which then causes a dangerous element called aflatoxins.

These are deadly, if ingested by both humans and livestock.

According to the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), at least 30% of the flour that was stocked under COVID-19 relief had these elements.

Add value

For large-scale maize farmers, you can acquire your own maize mills in order to add value to your harvest. Or any investor can acquire the mill, buy grain and turn it into flour.

A small maize mill will require the following:

• Maize thresher-sh2.2m

• Maize huller — sh2.3m

• Maize miller — sh3.5m

• Engine or motor sh2.5m

Others, including a low or hoisted weighing scale, sacks for packing and of course, labour. These may cost around sh1.5m.

Overall, the total cost of starting a medium size maize mill is around sh15m on average, fully registered as a company.

However, they can make you a unit of your wish, even if you wanted one that produces just 100kg per hour.

Costs of running a mill

If you are buying grain for your mill, according to estimates, you need about sh9m to mill a tonne of maize grain.

The expenses include cost of the maize grain, power/fuel for the generators, labour costs, plus wear and tear of machinery.

To process a tonne of good flour, you need around 1.8tonnes of maize grain. At a cost of sh500 per kilogramme of grain, this means that you spend sh900,000 on the grain. The other money is spent on labour, power and sacks for packing the flour.

At the current cost of sh1600-sh2,000 per A kilogramme of flour, the mill will make sh1.5m-sh2m from the tonne of flour. This gives a profit of about sh500,000-sh1m for each tonne.

Compiled by Joshua Kato (editor, Harvest Money)