Bihar wants maize export ban removed

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to remove the recently-imposed ban on maize exports. At 1.7 million tonnes, the state accounts for 10 per cent of the country’s total maize output.

“The recent ban on export has led to depressed market conditions. The price of maize before the ban hovered around Rs 732 a quintal. Now, it has now crashed to Rs 500-600 a quintal. The procurement of maize by buyers has also come down drastically,” Kumar has stated in a letter to the PM.

The union government had banned maize exports on July 3 (till October 15) as an anti-inflationary measure. Inflation has been near 12 per cent for the last few weeks.

“Maize in mainly produced by small farmers. For some of them, maize cultivation is the only source of livelihood. It has affected the poor farmers who were already facing the heat of price-rise on all fronts,” Kumar said.

He claimed that maize exports have been banned , in spite of the fact that the commodity is not a major contributor to the wholesale price index (WPI).