Maize in Ghana is extensively traded. Miracle (1966) estimated that in the mid-1960s, fully one-third of Ghana’s maize crop was being marketed—at the time an unusually high proportion for a subsistence crop in sub-Saharan Africa. The proportion has increased over the years with the rise of commercial farming. Today, at least half of the national maize crop is believed to enter the market (GGDP 1991; Alderman 1991). The extensive marketing of maize has important welfare implications because revenues from maize sales represent an important source of income for many households, even households that grow maize primarily to satisfy their own consumption requirements. Nationwide, maize accounts for of the revenues from crop sales.
