Growing Ginger in Ghana

Where ginger grows well in Ghana

Ask a ginger grower how long the crop takes and you will hear the same answer every time: eight to ten months, and do not dig early. Ginger is slow, and it rewards patience in the ground more than effort on the surface. It is usually grown in the forest and transition belt, where rain falls across much of the year and the shade of taller plants keeps the soil cool and moist.

Ginger is less happy in the dry north, where the rains are short and the air is dry for long months, unless you can irrigate carefully. Harmattan dust is hard on young leaves, and a plot in the open sun will need more water and more mulch than a plot under light shade. Ask your district MoFA office which districts near you have grown ginger successfully, and whether the local market prefers fresh or dried product. Many growers rotate ginger after a maize crop, and our maize guide explains how that crop is grown and cleared before the next season.

Ginger also tolerates a range of soils, but it does not tolerate wet feet. The best ground drains freely and holds moisture between rains. Heavy clay that puddles after a storm is the most common reason a ginger bed fails in the wet season, so test the drainage before you commit a whole plot.

Seed rhizomes: the planting material that decides the crop

Ginger is planted from pieces of rhizome, usually called seed ginger or seed rhizome, rather than from seed. The rhizome you plant is the crop's whole inheritance. If it carries disease, the disease goes into the bed with it, and bacterial wilt is the one that worries growers most. Bacterial wilt can survive in infected seed and in the soil, so the cost of a bad seed lot shows up for several seasons.

Buy seed rhizome from a grower who can show you a clean field, or from a research or extension source that tests its planting material. Look for plump, firm rhizomes with clear buds and no soft, shrivelled or discoloured patches. Cut the rhizome into pieces of roughly 25 to 30 grams, each with two or three buds, and let the cut surfaces dry in shade for a day before planting. Cutting tools should be cleaned between pieces, and any piece with a cut that looks wet or smells sour should be thrown away.

Store the seed in a cool, shaded, ventilated place until planting, and keep it off the bare floor where moisture gathers. Seed that sprouts early in storage can be planted, but it is weaker than seed that has held its buds in good condition.

Shade, soil and building the bed

Ginger likes partial shade. Many growers aim for roughly half the full sunlight, either from tree cover, a shade net or a companion crop taller than the ginger. Full sun on young plants scorches leaves and dries the soil faster than the rhizomes can cope with. Too much shade, on the other hand, gives you lush leaves and thin rhizomes, so the balance matters. Watch the crop through the first few months and adjust the shade if the leaves yellow or the plants stay pale.

Prepare the bed a few weeks before planting. Dig it to a spade's depth, remove stones and old roots, and raise it slightly where the drainage is poor. Work in well-rotted compost or poultry manure before planting, but not fresh manure, which can encourage the rot you are trying to avoid. Our guide to using poultry manure as fertiliser explains how to rot it properly.

Where a bed has been cropped hard for years, a cover crop such as mucuna can rebuild the organic matter first. A bed that drains well and holds its moisture is the goal. If the soil is very sandy, add organic matter to hold water, and if it is heavy clay, build the bed up so water runs off instead of pooling around the rhizomes.

Planting depth, spacing and the seed count

Plant the seed pieces about 3 to 5 cm deep with the buds facing up, and cover them with loose soil. Spacing of around 30 by 30 cm is common, which puts about 11 pieces in each square metre. Spacing depends on the variety, the shade and the way you plan to harvest, so confirm the figure with your extension officer before you plant.

Plant at the start of the rains, when the soil is moist but not waterlogged. Water the bed the same day, and keep it damp until the first shoots show above the soil. Ginger is slow to sprout, sometimes taking several weeks, so do not dig the pieces up to check them. Patience is the right response, and a fresh shoot will appear once the soil temperature and moisture are right.

Replace any piece that fails to sprout by a few weeks, and keep a note of where the gaps are. A few missing pieces are normal. A whole row that never comes up points to a problem with the seed, the soil or the drainage, and it is worth investigating before the next season.

The months from planting to harvest

The table gives the usual rhythm of a ginger crop. The months are typical for the crop, not a guarantee, and the real timing depends on the variety, the shade and the weather in your zone. Use the table to plan labour and water rather than as a promise of harvest dates.

Young ginger can be lifted from about five or six months for fresh sale, when the rhizomes are tender and juicy. Mature ginger is better for drying and for buyers who want the stronger, more fibrous rhizome. Decide which market you are supplying before you plan the harvest date.

Mulch, weeds and steady water through the season

Mulch is the most useful thing you can add to a ginger bed in Ghana. Dry leaves, grass or chopped crop residue keep the soil cool, hold moisture through the first dry spell, and stop the rain from crusting the surface. Keep the mulch a few centimetres away from the stems so the base does not stay wet, and top it up as it breaks down.

Weed by hand in the first few months, because a hoe can damage the shallow rhizomes that are forming. Pull weeds gently and keep the mulch thick enough to suppress new growth. Once the canopy closes, the weeds struggle, and the bed is easier to walk and scout.

Water is the tightest job. Ginger needs steady moisture, and an uneven pattern of drought and flood invites rot. In the rains, water only if the soil dries out and the rain has been missing for several days. In the dry season, a regular, measured watering keeps the leaves and rhizomes growing, and it is far better to water lightly and often than to flood the bed once a week.

Rot, bacterial wilt and nematodes to watch for

Walk the bed every week and check the base of the plants, the leaves and the soil around the rhizomes. Most ginger losses in Ghana come from soil and water problems that show up early, and the early signs are easy to miss if you only look at the top of the plant.

• Bacterial wilt: sudden wilting of a whole clump while the soil is moist, sometimes with a sour smell at the base. Pull out and remove affected plants and rhizomes, and do not replant the same ground soon.
• Rhizome rot: soft, brown or water-soaked rhizomes, usually in waterlogged or badly drained beds. Improve drainage and avoid heavy watering in wet spells.
• Leaf spot: brown or grey spots on the leaves, worse after humid nights. Remove the worst leaves and keep the mulch off the stems.
• Root-knot nematodes: stunted plants, galls on the roots and rhizomes that look swollen or knotted. Rotate the ground and ask your extension officer about testing.

Control options differ by disease and by region, so check any product with your district plant protection staff. Rotating away from ginger for at least a season, and using clean seed each time, do more against bacterial wilt than most sprays will.

Keeping birds and goats out of the ginger bed

Some of the farmers we supply with chicks also plant ginger on the same holding. The two only mix well when the birds stay out of the beds. Chickens scratch in loose soil, pull up young shoots and dig out the shallow rhizomes that are just beginning to swell. A flock that finds a bed can set a crop back badly in a single afternoon.

Goats browse the leaves, and a goat in the wrong field strips a bed faster than any disease. Fence the ginger on all sides and keep the gate closed. A simple fence of wire mesh or tightly woven bamboo works well, and it should be high enough that a goat cannot reach over the top.

Birds can be useful on a mixed farm when they are kept in their own run and their manure is composted before use. Our guide to keeping chickens and goats together covers how to plan the paddocks so each animal has its place and its own clean ground. If you are starting with birds and want a hatchery to talk through the flock side, our day-old chicks page sets out what we sell, and you can place an order or ask our team through the partner page.

Harvest by hand in dry weather

Harvest is where ginger either pays or disappoints. Dig in dry weather, when the soil is loose enough to lift the clumps without tearing the rhizomes. Wet soil clings to the rhizomes and bruises them, and bruised ginger spoils quickly in store and looks poor at the buyer's stall.

1. Wait for the leaves to yellow and start to dry before you dig mature ginger.
2. Loosen the soil with a fork or a hand hoe a short distance from the clump.
3. Lift the clump gently and shake off the soil by hand, without cutting or bruising the rhizomes.
4. Separate the fresh rhizomes from the mother rhizome and from the seed you will keep for next season.
5. Wash off the soil with clean water and let the rhizomes dry in shade for a day or two.
6. Store the seed rhizome in a cool, dry, ventilated place, and label it with the bed and the date.

Keep a record of yield per bed, the date you dug each bed, and any disease you saw. Our record keeping guide gives a simple layout that works for a crop bed just as well as for a flock.

Drying, curing and the fresh-to-dry ratio

Fresh ginger and dried ginger are two different products with two different buyers. Fresh rhizomes go to kitchens, drinks makers and households. Dried ginger, often sliced and sun-dried, goes to spice traders and processors who need a long shelf life. Decide which product you are making before harvest, because the drying step changes the work and the loss.

Ginger loses a lot of weight when it dries. A figure often quoted is roughly four or five kilograms of fresh ginger for each kilogram dried, but the real ratio depends on the variety, the maturity and how long you dry it. Weigh a sample from your own harvest before you plan any sale, and check the figure with the buyer who will take the dried product.

Dry the slices in a clean, shaded and ventilated space, or in sun on a raised mat during the dry season. Turn them daily, and bring them in at night so they do not take up damp. Mouldy ginger is rejected by buyers, and mould is a sign that drying was too slow or the store was too damp. Store dried ginger in clean, dry sacks away from wet floors.

Selling fresh and dried ginger to Ghanaian buyers

Buyers for fresh ginger include food sellers, households, drink makers and small processors who make ginger products for the local market. Dried ginger goes to spice traders and to processors who supply the wider trade. Each buyer has different expectations about size, cleanliness and moisture, so ask before you harvest. A buyer who wants clean, plump rhizomes will not take a load of muddy, bruised ones at any price.

I will not quote ginger prices, because they move with the harvest, the season and the trader's needs. Check current rates with the buyers you plan to supply, and ask what they paid last month rather than relying on the figure from a friend. Demand can lift around Christmas and the Eid festivals, when households cook and bake more and drinks are in demand. Plan your harvest timing around those windows if you can. If your buyers also take leafy vegetables, our lettuce guide covers a crop that sells on a different calendar, which can smooth out your cash flow.

Keep a sales book with the date, the product (fresh or dried), the weight, the buyer and the rate. After a full season you will know which product and which buyer were worth the work.

A 100 square metre ginger bed in numbers

These sums use a 10 by 10 metre bed, 30 by 30 cm spacing, and seed pieces of about 25 grams. The arithmetic is for planning seed and labour. It is not a yield forecast, and the real numbers will come from your own variety and site.

• Planting spots: about 11 per square metre, so about 1,100 pieces on the bed.
• Seed rhizome: about 27.5 kg for 1,100 pieces at 25 grams each, plus a spare allowance for failed pieces.
• Drying example: if your buyer's ratio is four to one, 1,000 kg of fresh ginger gives about 250 kg of dried product.
• Time: about eight to ten months from planting to mature harvest, with the bed occupied for the whole period.

Work out the cost of seed and labour with your own rates, and compare it against the buyers you can reach. Treat the first bed as a trial, keep the records, and plant a second bed only when you know what the first one taught you. The about page explains how our hatchery in Kasoa works with the farms around it, if you want to know who is writing these notes.

Questions farmers ask