How To Start A Tomato Farming In Ghana

Tomato is one of the most important cooking ingredient in
Ghana.
Ninety percent of our food is never complete
without tomato.
We use it in cooking stews, soups, salads,
portages, and virtually every food imaginable in the land . It
goes with everything.
So good that none of our traditional
foods ever rejected tomato.
This report explains how to
start lucrative tomato farming in Ghana.
Benefits Of Tomato Farming
Health: This wonderful fruit berry is an excellent source of
good amount of vitamin C and beta-carotene.
Tomatoes
deep redness mean it’s a very good source of antioxidant
agents.
It’s a powerful source of vitamin E and enhance the
health and sharpness of the eyes.
You can never go wrong
with tomatoes as far as nutrition and health is concerned.
Profit: The market is always there for tomatoes in Ghana.
Why not ? A product
that is consumed by close to 28 million people, no amount
you produced that will ever going to be enough.
Tomatoes
alone takes out over 20 billion annually from Ghanaians!
How To Grow Tomatoes
Tomato farming is very simple. Anyone can do it in any
capacity, either in the backyard or in commercial quantity.
Growing tomato is much more rewarding than you could
ever imagined.
Tomato can be grown round the year,
especially in places where there is irrigation
system specifically made for it.
In other places, it is best
cultivated during the rainy season.
Step 1: (Pick up The Best Species)
The improved yield
specie is the best
choice for farmers, do not pick the local species.
In this
case, We will recommend the Roma variety.
The Roma tomato
known for it’s size and redness is a plum tomato very
popular in the Ghanaian markets.
This specie can be used
both for canning and producing tomato paste.
It is also
commonly found in supermarkets in some countries like the
United States.
Roma tomatoes are also known as Italian
tomatoes, it is also called Italian plum tomatoes.
What makes Roma specie very unique is it’s long shelf life,
it’s hard back, and low water content which enables it to
last longer after harvest.
Step 2: (Prepare The Nursery)
This can be done around
March/April when the rain is just beginning in most parts of
the country.
You can use your backyard for the nursery or
any other piece of land the is suitable for it.
Tomatoes does
very well in most soil types in Nigeria but better in a black
loose loamy soil.
Prepare the ground by clearing the
grasses and rubble, loosen the soil with hand trowel and
hoes.
Remove the seeds from the tomatoes and spread it on the
prepared soil.
You can cover it with dry grasses to prevent
the lose of moisture from the soil and prevent birds ants
fowls from eating off the tomato farming seeds.
Within 5-7days you will see it germinating. Wait till about
another five days before you remove the dry grasses to
allow for proper growth.
Leave it for another one month
before transplanting.
Step 3: (Transplant to The Garden/Farm)
The final
journey will be moving it into the permanent farm where
they would grow to maturity and production.
If your farm is too big that you can’t do the transplanting
alone, hire laborers according to your need.
You need to be
careful with the tender plan to avoid breaking it.
Transplant
is best done with hands for better results.
Open the soil with piece of small wood, insert the seedling
into the hole and cover it with lose soil.
Tomato plan is very
tender and fragile, it is best transplanted the same day you
uprooted it from the nursery to avoid dehydration and
fatigue.
Step 4: (Weed and Apply Fertilizer)
After two months
from transplant, it will be time for weeding.
Hire laborers to
do the weeding while you supervise to ensure that your
tomato plants are not damaged during the process of
removing weeds.
After the first weed, it will be time to apply fertilizer to help
replenish the soil nutrients taken by the weeds.
To grow
successfully, tomatoes need nitrogen, phosphorus,
potassium, potash, calcium, and magnesium, along with
other trace minerals.
It’s always best to have your soil
tested to check for nutrient levels and pH level.
Use fertilizer that supply those vital nutrients – N-P-K ratio
fertilizer can be very good for tomatoes.
See types of
fertilizers that are very good for tomatoes.
Step 5: (Harvest Your Tomatoes)
Tomato is harvested in
matches, the moment you starts harvesting, you’ll continue
on weekly basis till the end of the season, usually it will
keep producing till the dry season when the plant will die
off due to the scorching heat.
The first harvest starts within three months after planting.
That means if you plan by April, you should be expecting
your first harvest to start by June/July.
From then, it will
continue till November/December.
Step 6 (Market Your Tomatoes)
It is important to prepare
your marketing well ahead of harvesting.
Look for who or
where to supply the product.
This is because, tomato is a
perishable product unless you have built storage system.
So, you can see the
potential in the farming business.
There is need for smart entrepreneurs to see the
opportunity for big business and big money in this sector.
We have gotten to the point where we need young savvy
entrepreneurs to break into this sector and start producing
and delivering quality, hygienic tomatoes at very affordable
price.
If you start preparation now for this venture, you will
harvest cash all season.