Blantyre City Council has banned, with immediate effect, the sale of green maize on all markets.

This usually occurs during February-March season, as that is the time that farmers are harvesting green maize, in contrast to April-May when matured dry maize is harvested.

With the timelines stated above, almost every year has a green maize sale ban for various reasons. Firstly, harvesting green maize means that all, if not half of a respective farmer’s maize yields are harvested before they mature; meaning that there will be less mature dry maize available due to the early green maize harvests. Hence, to avoid scarcity of maize in the market/household, responsible authorities ban the sale of green maize.

This year’s ban follows the above and the likelihood of green maize theft, as vendors may partake in the crime for profits. As usual, the ban is against raw, cooked and roasted green maize.