Staple crop production in developing countries contributes decisively to food safety. In Sub-Saharan Africa however, the Green Revolution, aiming at sustaining agricultural productivity growth was mostly viewed as not successful, compared to what happened in Asian countries. There is a widespread agreement on the fact that this statement is especially related to the food marketing environment and to transaction costs. Stagnant food crop productivity and poor market performance may then be at stake. The paper aims at identifying the relative importance of marketing and production behaviours. It focuses on the case of maize in Sub-Saharan Africa. The results show that, beyond production choices, two aspects should be taken into account in order to understand commercialisation decisions: the role of intermediation and that of storage.