Growing Moringa in Ghana for Feed and Market

A tree most compounds already have

Drive through almost any town in the Central, Volta or Northern Region and you will see a moringa tree that somebody grew from a stick. It usually stands beside the kitchen door or on the edge of the cassava plot. People pick the leaves for soup and sauce, dry a few pods for the pot, and then forget about the tree until the rains bring fresh shoots.

That casual relationship is the reason moringa is worth taking seriously as a crop. The tree already suits Ghanaian conditions. It has a deep taproot, it puts up with long dry spells, and it grows on the thin sandy and lateritic soils that discourage maize. Where most farmers go wrong is treating it as a fence plant when it can be a crop with a plan.

Most growers and buyers around Ghana will know Moringa oleifera, and that is the species to start with unless your district agric officer advises something else. Ask the people who sell you seedlings which species they are supplying, because the trees in a neighbour's compound are not always the same plant.

This article is about growing the tree. Drying leaves for poultry is a separate job with its own rules, and our moringa leaf meal article covers how far a flock can go with dried leaves. Here we stay with the field, the nursery bag and the harvest.

Choosing a site where the water leaves

Moringa will grow on poor ground, but it will not grow well with wet feet. A tree planted in a low corner where water sits after a storm develops rotten roots, and no amount of compost will save it. Pick the highest well-drained spot you can get, ideally with a slight slope so that rainwater runs off rather than pooling.

Think about your zone as well. In the coastal savannah around Accra and Kasoa, the tree grows quickly in the major rains and then slows in the dry season, so plan your planting for March or April. In the forest and transitional belt around Kumasi and Techiman, the long wet season tempts people to plant in the valley bottoms where the soil looks richer. Resist that. The richer soil is also the soil that stays wet longest.

In the north, around Tamale and Bolgatanga, the harmattan cools the nights and slows leaf growth through December and January. A tree planted in the late rains will be small by the time the cold comes, so give it a full season before you judge it. Planting too late in the north is one of the more common reasons a moringa block looks sad in its first year.

Check the site for shade as well. Moringa likes full sun. A seedling tucked under a mango or a big neem will stretch, go pale and fall over at the first strong wind.

Raising seedlings in bags before the first rains

Start with fresh seed. Moringa seed loses its viability fairly quickly, and old seed germinates in patches. Buy from a source that can tell you when the seed was collected, or collect your own from pods that dried on a healthy tree. Seed kept in a tin for a year is a gamble, and a gamble is expensive when you have spent a season on bags and water.

Fill polythene bags with a mix of topsoil, sand and a little rotted manure. Make a hole about two centimetres deep and drop one seed in each bag. Germination usually comes within one to two weeks if the bags stay moist and are kept out of harsh midday sun. Put them under light shade, water gently in the morning and the evening during hot spells, and stand them where you pass them every day so you notice when something goes wrong.

Do not let the seedlings sit in the shade for too long. Harden them off for a week or two before they go out: move them into more sun and water a little less each day. A seedling sturdy enough to stand in the wind will survive the transplant far better than a soft, leggy one that has spent its life under a sack.

If you buy seedlings rather than raising them, look at the stem and the roots before you pay. The stem should be straight and firm, and the root ball should hold together when you tip the bag. A plant with a long, bent stem and a bag full of loose soil has been left too long in the nursery.

Spacing that matches what you want to harvest

The purpose you pick decides the layout. A tree grown for pods or seed needs room to spread and set a full crop, so it gets wide spacing. A tree grown for leaves is cut back hard and often, so it can go in much closer. The mistake people make most often is mixing both plans in one block. You end up with trees too crowded to pod well and too far apart to make the leaf harvest worth the walk.

The figures below are typical starting points used in tropical extension guidance. Treat them as planning numbers. Soil depth, rainfall and the variety you planted all change the answer, so confirm the spacing with your district agric office before you mark out the ground.

Lay out the rows with string before you dig. Mark the planting holes, dig them a little wider than the bag, and fill the bottom with a handful of compost. Set the seedling so the root ball sits level with the soil surface, then firm the soil around it without compacting it into a brick.

If you intend to intercrop, keep the moringa to one side of the plot, or plant it along the field edge where it can act as a windbreak. Maize and cassava planted right up to a young moringa will shade it and compete for water, and the tree will sulk for a season.

Pruning so the leaves stay within arm's reach

An unpruned moringa grows tall and thin, and its leaves end up at the top where nobody can reach them without a ladder. The fix is to cut the young tree back when it is about a metre tall. That encourages side branches to form lower down, which is the shape you want for a leaf crop. Do it early, while the stems are still green enough to cut cleanly with a sharp knife or secateurs.

After that, harvest leaves by cutting back branch tips rather than stripping the whole tree. Leave a good share of the foliage on the plant so it keeps making food for the next flush. Regrowth is quick in the rains and slow in the cool weeks of the harmattan, so do not push a hard cut in late December in the north and expect it to bounce back in January.

Watch the shoots that come straight up from the base or from an old cut. Remove the weak ones and keep two or three strong shoots on each stump. A tree crowded with stems gives you leaves at the top and very little to pick at the next cut.

A rule of thumb worth keeping: never cut more than you can replace in one rainy season. If the tree is stripped every month and never gets a chance to rebuild, you are feeding the harvest with the tree's own reserves.

Water, mulch and getting through the dry season

Once established, moringa handles a long dry spell better than most vegetables. Leaves are a different matter. A tree you intend to cut for leaves will need water during the dry season if you want regrowth when the rains return. Give seedlings and young trees a regular soak through their first dry season, and keep the water off the trunk so the bark does not rot.

Mulch works well on a Ghanaian plot. Dried grass, maize stalks or chopped cassava stems laid around the root zone hold moisture and stop the soil crusting after a heavy shower. Keep the mulch a hand's width away from the stem. Mulch piled against the trunk invites termites and rot, and it is one of the commonest self-inflicted problems in a first year.

In the north, a shallow basin around each tree catches the rain and holds it long enough to soak in. In the forest zone, where the ground stays wet longer, the basin needs to drain. Water sitting in a basin is still standing water, so cut a small channel out of the low side if the ground stays soggy after a storm.

Plan the dry-season water before the dry season starts. A barrel, a tank or a dam you can reach with a bucket will carry young trees through the hard weeks. If you have to choose between watering the maize and watering the moringa, the young trees usually win because they are the asset you are building.

Pests, and the problems that only look like pests

Moringa is fairly tough, but young trees attract a few regular visitors. Aphids cluster on soft new shoots and growing tips, and the sticky honeydew they leave draws ants. Caterpillars chew leaves in the wet season. Termites attack seedlings in dry soil, and they can hollow out a stump that was cut and left unsealed. Root rot follows waterlogging, and it shows up as yellowing leaves on a tree that looked healthy a week earlier.

Start with the cheap steps. Keep the site weed-free so you can see what is happening on each tree, pinch out heavily infested shoots and bin them away from the bed, and dig up a tree that wilts while the soil is wet so you can look at the roots. A root that smells sour and falls apart in your hand is a drainage problem, and no spray will fix it.

For any chemical control, ask your agric extension officer which product is registered for vegetables and trees in Ghana, and follow the label to the letter. This article does not give dosages, and you should not take a dosage from any blog, ours included. Plant protection products are registered by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, so check current terms with the MoFA office in your district.

Keep records of what you see and when. A notebook entry that says "aphids on the new flush, after three days of rain" helps your extension officer give you better advice than a vague complaint about trees that are not doing well.

Harvesting leaves, pods and seed without stripping the tree

Leaves are the most frequent harvest and the easiest to overdo. Pick the soft young leaves and the thin stems, leave the woody wood, and never strip a branch down to bare stick. A stripped tree takes weeks to recover, and in a dry spell it may not recover at all.

Pods are picked in one of two stages. Green, firm pods are taken for cooking. Pods left on the tree until they turn brown and split are taken for seed. Dry seed on a clean mat or tray in the shade, not on a tin roof in full sun where the heat can damage the embryo. Once it is dry, store the seed in a sealed container, away from damp floors, and label it with the tree and the date.

Harvest in the morning, when the leaves are cool and turgid, and get them out of the sun quickly. Leaves left in a basket through the afternoon wilt and yellow, and they lose both weight and quality before they reach a buyer or the feed bin.

Harvest records matter more than people think. Write down the weight of each picking, the tree or block it came from and the weather that week. After one season you will know which block carries you through the lean months and which one needs more work.

Who buys moringa, and how to find them

Moringa has several buyers, and each one wants something different. Market women buy leaves by the bundle for soup and sauce. Herbal sellers and natural-health traders often want dried leaves or powder. Feed mills and small feed-makers buy dried leaf meal, usually with a moisture and colour specification. Some growers also sell pods, seed or seedlings to people starting their own trees.

Before you plant, find out what your local market will pay. Ask at the market, at the nearest feed mill and at the district agric office, and write down what you hear with the date. We cannot give you a rate, and anyone who quotes one without knowing your town is guessing. Leaf and powder markets move with the season and with buyer demand, so check current rates every time you sell.

Festive periods change the picture. Demand for soup ingredients rises before Christmas and Eid, and some sellers want stock early. Ask buyers when they will want the next lot and how they prefer it packed, because a buyer who wants the leaves fresh is a different customer from one who wants them dried and bagged.

If you plan to sell in bulk, register the business with the Registrar-General's Department and check with your district assembly about trading permits. The rules change, so confirm current terms before you commit to a contract.

A worked example: one plot, two plans

Take a plot of about half an acre on sandy loam with good drainage. Plan A puts trees in close rows for leaves. Plan B spreads fewer trees wider apart for pods and seed. The comparison below uses assumptions only, so swap in your own numbers from the nursery, the market and your own labour.

Most farms that try moringa end up somewhere between the two. The useful question is which plan you can staff. A leaf plan you cut once a month will not supply a feed mill, and a pod plan you forget to pick will rot on the tree. Work out the hours you have in a week before you choose.

A simple test: count how many hours a week you can give the trees during the rains. If the answer is three, plant a small leaf block for your own kitchen and birds, and add pods later. If the answer is twenty, a larger plan with seed and pods becomes realistic. Either way, write the answer down before you buy seedlings.

Where moringa sits alongside your poultry

Plenty of backyard flocks already have a moringa tree by the kitchen, and the leaves go into the pen as a green treat. That is a sensible use, and it is also where people go wrong. Fresh leaves are bulky, they wilt quickly, and too much of them can upset a ration. A tree is a useful add-on to a poultry business, not a replacement for a balanced feed.

If you plan to mix your own feed around greens from the farm, get the ration checked against the age and stage of your flock. Our feed formulation basics article explains the ingredients and the arithmetic, and mixing your own poultry feed walks through a home mix from start to finish.

Moringa can also sit beside the goats or sheep you may keep later. Browse plants are useful in the dry months, but the same caution applies: trees cut for leaves need a rest, and the animals should not be left to strip the regrowth. Our cassava in poultry feed article is a good reference for the wider question of home-grown energy and protein.

Manure from the birds is the other half of the story. Litter from a healthy flock feeds the trees well once it is dried or composted, and our guide to using poultry manure explains how to handle it safely. If you are building a heap of mixed farm residues to go round the trees, our composting farm waste article sets out a method that suits a mixed farm.

Forage plants for the rest of the livestock are a separate question, and our forage legumes article covers the legumes that fit alongside tree crops. More farming guides are on the blog, and the about page explains who we are: a day-old chicks hatchery in Opeikuma, Kasoa, not a tree nursery.

When you are ready to stock birds, our day-old chicks range covers the breeds we hatch, and the breeds page compares them. Our chick prices page lists the current starting prices for the poultry side. You can order through the order section of the site or message our team on WhatsApp at +233 24 915 1503 to talk through the birds that fit your plot. If you are planning to scale up, the partner with us page is the place to start.

A checklist before you plant the first tree

Work through this list before you buy or raise a single seedling. Most first-year trouble comes from skipping one of these steps.

1. Choose the purpose: leaves, pods or seed. Write it down.
2. Pick a well-drained spot, out of the low corner where water collects.
3. Confirm the spacing for that purpose with your district agric office.
4. Source fresh seed or healthy seedlings, and note the source and date.
5. Raise seedlings in bags under light shade, and harden them off before planting.
6. Plant at the start of the rains, not in the middle of a dry spell.
7. Mulch around each tree, keeping the mulch away from the stem.
8. Prune the young tree to about a metre so it branches low.
9. Plan dry-season water before the dry season begins.
10. Check local buyers and current rates, and register the business if you sell in bulk.

Questions farmers ask