24/05/2016
How To Be Rich Farming Tomatoes From Any Part Of Nigeria
Tomato is no doubt one of the world’s highly consumed vegetables as it is found in a lot of meals across the globe.
In Nigeria, particularly, with a population of over 160 million, tomatoes command a huge demand especially in the urban areas where it is sought after by households to prepare their favourite meals.
Currently, most of the tomatoes supplied to the country’s markets come from the Northern parts of the country where it is grown, as well as from neighbouring countries, including Ghana and Benin Republic.
According to the renowned farmer and consultant, Afioluwa Mogaji, who is also popularly known as Africafarmer, there is still a huge market for new tomato farmers to become rich as well in the lucrative tomato farming business.
He also disclosed that contrary to the belief that tomatoes can only thrive in the Northern part of the country; the vegetable can be grown successful in the Southern part too. All that is required is the right information on how to achieve it.
In this interview, Africanfarmer shares his many years experience in tomato farming, revealing very important things you should know about successfully farming the crop.
Can one become rich by farming tomatoes?
Yes, but I will like to share with you the challenges people from Benin Republic and Ghana had some years ago which caused some of them to start thinking out of the box and to discover opportunities in the challenge.
The summary of what happened is that the tomatoes farming business was very profitable in Ghana and Benin Republic in 2006 and all the farmers went into it massively for commercial production.
Some of them went on borrowing and went into the production the following year. The farmers that were not used to using tractors began to use tractors and at the end of the day they produced so much tomatoes, such that there was no one to buy. The prices crashed from $50 per box to about $3 per box. So, from that challenge, the opportunity to bring it to Nigeria opened up - Nigerians and Ghanaians, especially the ones who are not educated began to embrace the opportunity.
Since then, the industry has been expanding, as people go and bring it to Nigeria and make lots of money. But it is even more expensive than the Hausa tomatoes, produced from the Northern part of Nigeria.
The idea of giving you this information is to let you know how many borders between Ghana and Nigeria - it takes an average of like three days to move those products to Nigeria, yet when it gets to the market it's still the same tomatoes that people prefer over the tomatoes produced in Nigeria.
But the good thing is, we can produce the type of tomato, I have planted these same tomatoes and they did very well here. The seeds are not even of Ghanaian or Republic of Benin origin, they are from developed countries which are also doing well there.
How can I go about farming tomatoes successfully?
Anyone who is interested in farming tomatoes can really do it successfully, the opportunities have always been there and some Nigerians, since 2006 been bringing tomatoes from Ghana to Nigeria, yet we in Nigeria fold our hands, busy complaining about government, while people from Ghana are bringing tomatoes to us.
Presently, if you go to the market and you find tomatoes in wooden crates, it's from Ghana - sometimes in September you will see tomatoes in a kind of basket that is not Hausa basket that is coming from Benin Republic.
All the big hotels, from three to five star hotels use Ghana tomatoes. Most caterers also use Ghana tomatoes.
The question now is that, “Why is Ghana tomato having such attention?” It is purely a hybrid that does not drip water easily. The “Hausa tomatoes”, which is the tomatoes produced from the Northern part of the country, even though we celebrate it is still not of the highest quality.
So, you will need to pay attention to see the opportunities in tomato farming; to know how tomato is grown; to know the things we need to pay attention to, such that we will be able to take good position to make the money.
One of the things that I like to learn from those foreign farmers is the fact that farming does not make you rich, it is the business side of farming that makes you rich.
That is where a lot of people get it wrong, as they focus on the production, while they forget about the business side of it. So, the information I will be sharing with you will take you from production - the farming aspect, to the business side of it.
During the raining season between 100 and 150 trailers get to Mile 12 everyday from the North with tomatoes, and as they are emptied, you won't find them again in a couple of hours. But some of us in the South-West especially are already tapping into tomato farming and I must say there is nothing special about it.
There is a thinking that tomatoes do not do well here in the South, but that is a very wrong notion, as I grow all varieties of tomatoes - everything does well here.
What Drives Tomato Industry
The tomato industry is shape driven - meaning that they have different shapes, three different shapes to be precise.
One is long, another is oblong, and the third is a little bulky. To take a decision on which one to produce and the purpose of the tomatoes, you need to first ask yourself, “What do I want to do with the tomatoes when I harvest them?” Know the purpose of the kind of tomato you want to plant and that purpose will influence your decision on the seeds and the shape you buy.
I will like to tell you something that happened to me some years ago, I went to a seed company in Coutonu, Benin Republic, where I saw in the catalogue some tomatoes that had very exceptional qualities, each 50g tin was being sold for N6,000, and another 60g tomato seed sold for N10,000.
So, I bought them and planted them - I have been in tomato farming with my dad and we have been planting about a hundred to a hundred and fifty acres, way back in the '80s with irrigation.
So, I basically know tomato production well. So, we planted and everything was okay, up until we had so much rain - a heavy one so to say. Eventually, the tomatoes survived, other farmers tomatoes had died, but when the tomatoes matured and we were to sell them in the market, we now discovered that the market was shape driven.
The quality of my tomatoes was better quality, in fact the seed of the Hausa tomatoes was about N2, 500 for a 100g, while the local ones planted by the rural people was like N500 for a milk tin.
When we took it to the market, the Hausa and local tomatoes attracted better price, it wasn't that they did not know that it was of better quality, because it was firm, but because they just wanted to cheat, which they eventually did because we could not take them back. We also did not understand that it was shape driven. It was a bit flat, had like four lobes by the side, just like the traditional old tomatoes.
Beautiful production, beautiful harvest, but the return did not justify it and that was what led me into this research with a view to studying the market. We came into the market with quality, but discovered that it was shape that determined the price.
So, in a nut shell, tomato industry in Nigeria is shape driven - mostly it is the oblong shape that is mostly demanded, not the straight type, not the ones with flat base, but the ones with egg-like or ball-like structure.
The moment it has a flat surface and base, you are sure that you are selling at the lowest price, irrespective of the quality. So, you must pay attention to that.
How can one get the right seeds?
The quality and source of your seed would determine the reward of your labour. If you invest in low quality seeds, after you have invested all your time and effort, you will discover that the yield will be low. Before you take a decision on what seed to buy, you should be ready to answer these basic questions. Are you producing for fresh market? Are you producing the tomatoes for processing?
There are primarily two types of tomatoes targeted at different markets - the fresh market and the processing market.
Fresh market tomatoes are big and firm tomatoes, the type you slice or blend with your pepper for stew and soup. The other type is the one used for processing, which are smaller sizes and they can be processed into pewries, pastes, among others.
Meanwhile, the end product you eventually use it for determines which type to buy, in terms of seeds. For the fresh market tomatoes, the average woman goes for it in the market because it looks big, firm and very reddish.
If it is not really red here, the average woman would not buy, except there is no tomato in the market and she has to compromise. So, here in this part of the country and in Ghana, it must be red. The processing tomatoes are smaller.
What type of tomatoes seed is profitable to plant and why is it so?
There is what we call hybrid and pollinated, these are the various seeds that we have but then, another question you need to answer again is that, “Are you buying what you call hybrid or open pollinated?” Hybrids are tomatoes seeds that have been processed or improved upon, mostly for yield and disease resistance. So, you have some hybrids that will do well only in the raining season - if you plant it outside raining season, you just lost your money.
There are some other varieties of hybrids that are planted only in the dry season, if you plant it in the raining season, it will be firm, big, but it will begin to crack. These are things you need to know when buying the seeds and these are questions you need to ask the seller - is it dry season, raining season or all purpose? If I must tell you, I have been into this kind of mistake of putting so much in buying the seeds and later discovering that it is not meant for the season in which it is planted.
There are some other hybrids that are all purpose; you can grow them from January to December. But what has been discovered is that the ones that are bred for specific seasons are actually bigger. For instance, the ones bred for raining and dry seasons are bigger than the all purpose. There are some exceptions, but most of the hybrids focus on diseases and yields - which is a major advantage of using hybrids.
Also, most of the hybrids have thick covering, which makes them very good for transportation, especially in the developing countries where you have bad roads. So, once the covering is thick, it withstands the rigors of transportation, but the seeds attract a higher price.
The other type of seed is the open pollinated. Open pollinated seeds are seeds that require insect or bees to pollinate them.
Firstly, open pollinated is prone to disease and by buying open pollinated seeds, you may lose 50 percent of your harvest, if you have insect attack and you do not pay attention to it early enough.
Secondly, most of them are not strong enough to be transported through long distances and difficult terrains. Recently, varieties that can endure the rigor of transportation have been found, but they have a longer maturity days, while the hybrids mature faster.
Nursery Preparation
For any tomato crop, developing in nursery is very important. You first nurse the seeds and when they develop to a certain stage, you now transplant. For hybrids, it is ready for transplanting within 15 days. For open pollinated varieties, it is about 21 to 30 days - if it is well managed, it is 21 days. The beds should be straight, elevated, more like a ridge but bigger.
Ideally, you incorporate very dry poultry manure. If you are planting in the dry season, you must wet the land for it to get really soaked for 24 hours. So, if you put water on the beds today, you will not start your nursery till tomorrow evening, because the land is very dry and whatever you put in will go deep down but if the surface is dry.
By the time you are doing it the next day, you will be adding more water and the soil will be moist. If you forget that and you spread the seeds on it, the heat would destroy the seed. Spreading the seeds, your hands must be very close to the beds, if not the wind will blow off the seeds and you have it scattered and unevenly distributed. I have to tell you this, because most of us are not agric professionals - this is what everybody can do, either schooled or unschooled, educated or uneducated.
Then, after making the bed, you raise it with palm fronts, putting sticks by the sides to create a platform where you put the palm fronts on. The palm fronts are primarily suppose to reduce the intensity of the heat to the seeds, creating a cool atmosphere between the palm fronts and the beds.
So, as you are applying water daily, you put it on the palm fronts, so it drips on the bed as against pouring water straight which washes it off. But the palm front reduces the impact and you have a good harvest from the nursery. You have another type of nursery bed, which is covered with mosquito nets. Instead of putting palm fronts, you stack sticks and cover it with mosquito nets or any clothing materials that will still allow air. This is just to protect it from insect.
After about ten days, depending on the varieties, you begin to, weekly, reduce the palm fronts on it. For hybrids, you remove it totally at 10 to 12 days, so that it can subject it to the heat it will be used to the open field. For open pollinated, you remove it totally, five days before transplanting, so that it can adjust to the heat.
How can one prepare the farmland for tomatoes?
After clearing the land and you want to engage tractors, the tractor must work on it twice, depending on the level of w**d – well, there must not be w**ds on the plot, it should be plain ground and nothing green should be on the soil.
Preferably, if you are using tractor, there is what is called harrow, equipment attached to the tractor that breaks up the soil and makes the soil lose; this will help the tomato root to go deep down into the soil without stress.
Transplanting
Note, transplanting is mostly done in the evenings, except you have heavy rainfall in the morning. So, if you are transplanting in the evening, you apply a lot of water in the morning. This is because when you are picking the tomatoes, the soil must be moist so as not to break their root. When you are planting, it is very important you use a stick to drive it into the soil, so that the root will not fold - if the root folds, it will create a measure of shock before the crop recovers.
Also, when transplanting, make sure the plant is erect and not bending. You must cover the soil or plant to the first leave - the branch closest to the soil should be touching the soil or just a bit above the soil. That way, it would shoot up and develop more branches. Once tomato is erect, it grows straight, if it is not erect, it bends and once it is bending, it will be difficult for some other operations.
Staking
This is just providing a platform for the tomatoes to rest on. It could be erect or imposed.
A. Benefits of Staking: You would harvest less damaged tomatoes, because the more the tomatoes rest on the soil, the more bacteria attack it and affect the fruits. So, when the plant is raised and it is not touching the soil it grows better, the fruits are hanged, as it is supported because if you have very good tomato fruit yields, it might be so heavy for the plant. But when you stake it, you won't lose the fruits and you can harvest longer.
B. Disadvantages of Staking: After you have completed the operation, what would be left is removing those stakes to be able to plant something else. But if you have made enough money, you can engage people to do that.
What is the profit returns like based on the land and inputs, cost of production?
Well, some may be brooding that how much does it cost to plant and produce one hectare - which is two and half acres. I will say it depends on your seeds, location and on a lot of other factors. However, staking takes some amount of money because you have to do it well with wood or bamboos.
So, what I have experienced over the years to set up is that, it may cost you about N250,000, depending on seeds because, if you are using 300g - a full milk tin for the hybrids that is relatively affordable, let's say 5,000. That is 5,000 multiply by six, which is equals to N30,000. You can use other open pollinated seeds that are also good, but will mature just a bit late, 75 days; you can buy for like N2,500, which is 50 percent of the hybrids, it will still give you a good yield if you have good management.
You have to spray more to protect the disease from coming in, unlike hybrids which has been improved upon, such that the major diseases affecting tomatoes don't affect them. So, for open pollinated, you are using N15,000 worth of seeds.
I like to budget very well and sometimes over budget, because all things don't get equal in the environment we are. Today, the seeds might be available, but you might not get them easily tomorrow. Some might decide to pay attention on seed business. So, I plant 300g, the ones that are very healthy - people just do the nursery and plant everything, but everything will not give you the result you are looking for.
So, when you do your nursery, you only pick the strong ones. What happens is that most hybrids mature in 60 or 65 days, even if you don't transplant them, they begin to flower at about 40 to 41 days, irrespective of the bad condition. If you use a crop that is probably not healthy - very thin, when you transplant it, it will first take some times to regain stability and later begin to grow, while the healthy ones will be like two weeks ahead.
If I may say this, the labour you use are w**ding; they w**d the farm per space or size of the farm, not per number of the plants. So, if it is one acre, they charge for the same, likewise spraying, among others. If you don't have healthy crops you are losing, as you are paying more money to do other things and the crops would not come as the best. So, it is better to spend more money on the seeds, pick the good ones and you can now have a backup. I use to backup with another one acre, where the remaining seeds without good vigour will be planted. Well, sometimes, those seeds perform really good.
One other thing I need to mention is a "Principle 2-2-2" - if you miss this principle, you might miss the profit. Principle 2-2-2 simple means: "2weeks-2weeks-2weeks." Now, in the tomato business, if you want to plant like six acres, divide your nursery bed to three plots and your plot to three plots. Now you have the first nursery, so you have to start the second nursery two weeks after and you start another one two weeks after.
This is because the way it works is that, tomatoes have the highest consumption all over the world - it has the highest demand on equal consumption all over the world. So, the existence of nature - climate change has defiled the knowledge and experience of professors and researches. So, the new syllabus is, if you raise your nursery bed two weeks, if it affects the first batch, the second batch will survive - most times the climate change don't last for more than two weeks.
If it affects the first batch, don't forget that it is not only you, other farmers are there as well and it means the price in the market will be shooting up. So, if the second batch is the one that hits the market, then you make the money. It is just that the price of tomatoes goes from about 30 percent to 100 percent.
But we have been able to study to find out that it happens in two weeks interval. So, there was a year I didn't plant because I saw that the trend of the weather the previous year is even getting worse and because I knew I wasn't going to have the time for irrigation. Well, irrigation is not what you think it is - not the perception of irrigation that you need millions.
Irrigation has been demystified, as some of us have decoded it. Now, with as much as N40,000, you will have a good irrigation system. When I say system, I mean the equipment you need. What I say is that irrigation is not a big deal anymore - yes, the more you advance, the more sophisticated it gets to.
So, that Principle 2-2-2 can mark the difference between profits and losses. Tomatoes would always give you profits, but leveraging on market, you need that principle. Never put all your eggs, in tomato production, in one basket. Tomato can make you and can break you - the higher the risk, the higher the profits, but it is not as risky as people say it is. If you follow what I have been saying, you would not have disease, because you have taken care of it, but if you don't pay attention and you miss any of the steps, you are on your own!
What is your expected yield?
What should you expect from your tomato cultivation on a hectare of land? If you do it well, the standard yield you should be having, give or take, is 20-30 tons. I say again standard best practice, when you try to make all things equal. But to be realistic, may be you didn't find labour, you didn't find the right fertilizer needed or it is not applied properly, climate change set in, because of the approach and behaviour of most farmers to tomato farming, Nigerian tomato farmers don't get more than five tons.
Meanwhile, in the developed countries, they all use growth booster, but we don't use it here. Even, most times here we don't fertilize and when we fertilize, we don't do it at the right time. When we suppose to spray, we don't spray at the right time. This is because the knowledge that brought us into the business was not knowledge based on sound practice.
A basket of Hausa tomato is about 40kg or 50kg, so they celebrate when they get 100 baskets - two tons to five tons. But ideally, if you have adequate rain and every other thing is left to management, you should be getting about 10tons - 10,000kg.
For me, that is standard, but you really don't find people getting that result, but most Northern farmers get this result. This is because the same way cattle is like the baby of the Fulanis, so is the farm to the Hausa man. They w**d, spray when they ought to and do everything needed to be done - if you get to the North in the dry season, they will dig deep into the land under dry bridge, put in what is called tube-well with some pump in it and pump out water to irrigate their farm.
What I am presenting to us is for us to do the right thing at the right time and the profit will come. That is why you see loads of trailers coming here because it is in abundance. The difference between farming in the North and South is the mindset of the farmer and how much time and resources he is willing to spend on the farm.
The market to sell and pricing
The market determines the price. However, if you have a good crop, in terms of firmand appealing tomatoes, you can increase your price in the market.
How does the market works? When you grow your tomatoes and you are selling to the open market, your products should be targeted at such market as Mile 12, Ketu, Ile'po close to Iyana Ipaja, which are the biggest market so far in Lagos, as trailers come there, offload their tomatoes and drive out. There is no other mega supermarket that can take what these markets are taking.
