Moisture content, grading and timing quietly decide the price you are offered at the farm gate. Here is what buyers actually look at.
Two farmers can bring the same maize variety to the same buyer in the same week and walk away with very different prices. The difference is rarely luck.
Moisture is the first thing checked. Maize offered above roughly 13.5 percent moisture carries storage risk, and that risk gets priced in as a discount. Drying properly on a raised surface rather than bare ground, and testing before you transport, is the cheapest price improvement available to most farmers.
Cleanliness and foreign matter come next. Stones, cob fragments and soil reduce the usable weight, and buyers who mill or export will deduct for it. A simple winnowing and hand sort before bagging often pays for itself many times over.
Timing matters too. Prices are usually softest in the weeks immediately after the main harvest, when everyone is selling at once, and firm up as stocks thin out. Holding grain only works if you can store it dry and pest free, so be honest about your storage before deciding to wait.
Finally, sell in a lot size that interests a serious buyer. Ten bags attracts a trader; a hundred graded bags attracts a processor. That is exactly the gap aggregation is meant to close.