How to Start Wheat Farming Business in Ghana
Wheat farming is one of the most lucrative agribusinesses in Ghana with a lot of potentials. Wheat and its product are one of the most popular grain in Ghana. What makes wheat farming lucrative is the already existing market.
Almost every household in Ghana has a daily taste of wheat and its product. Some of the most popular wheat products in Ghana include bread, noodles, biscuits, cookies, cakes, spaghetti etc.
Another huge market for wheat consumption in Ghana is livestock feed production. Wheat bran is used in animal feed production.
However, due to insufficient wheat production in Ghana, the country imports up to 700,000 tonnes of wheat yearly to meet its local consumption. Smart entrepreneurs who are into wheat farming are making money from it.
Ghana as a country is served by five major wheat milling companies that have a total installed capacity of about 1,600 tonnes per day and operate at about 80% of capacity.
This clearly shows that the country is in need of more wheat farmers. Currently, Ghana has a local wheat consumption of about 590,000 tonnes. The most preferred variety of wheat used in Ghana is called hard wheat.
Contents
How to Start Wheat Farming Business in Ghana
Wheat cultivation has great commercial and economic benefit to both the individual farmer and the country as a whole. The process of wheat farming from the site selection to the harvesting can be quite challenging however this article has made the task quite straightforward and interesting.
Step 1 – Get a Farmland
To get started with your wheat farm, you need farmland where you will plant your wheat seedlings. Wheat grows best in well-drained loamy soil. The term loam is textural and reflects the particle size distribution of the soil and the relative quantities of the sand, silt and clay size fractions.
Step 2 – Seed Selection
You need to choose the best wheat variety for your farm. For biscuits and cookies production, the best variety is white or soft wheat. On the other hand, the ideal wheat for making pasta like spaghetti and noodles is the durum wheat.
Also, there are some improved wheat seedlings that are drought and heat tolerance as well as pest and disease resistance.
Step 3 – Wheat Planting
Before planting, you need to do land clearing, tilling and other preparation activities. The best time for wheat planting is dry season around November to March. However, there are some varieties that may be grown during the rainy season. However, this is usually accompanied by high disease and weed.
Wheat can be planted using different planting methods. Some of the recommended planting methods include beds and drill sowing, broadcasting and bed formation, broadcasting, and drill sowing.
Step 4 – Harvesting
Your wheat is ready for harvesting after about 8 months. However, some varieties of wheat mature within 4 months.
When it’s harvesting time, you can check if the wheat is mature enough by rubbing the head between your fingers and chewing the wheat grain. If the wheat cracks in your mouth and becomes soft as you chew then it is ready for harvest. The grains can be harvested manually by cutting the stalk and winnowing to remove the chaff.
Step 5 – Storage
Wheat storage is a major concern to wheat farmers particularly due to rat infestation. This is why the storage area needs to be well protected from rats by blocking all possible holes.
Also, the storage method is pneumatic. The wheat is stored in a three-layered bag which deprives any insect larva or egg carried from the field from surviving.
Step 7 – Marketing
One major advantage that wheat farmers do have is that there’s an already established market for wheat production in Ghana. You can sell your wheat to any of the nearby wheat mills.
Good stuff