MONEY MATTERS: Investing In Garlic Farming

Garlic with botanical name, Allium sativum is a popular species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus Allium with several natural medicinal values and used worldwide as spice.

It can be grown massively and mostly in northern states of  Zamfara, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kaduna and Bauchi. Although garlic is used across the length and breadth of Nigeria and readily available in street markets but not many know that they can make fortunes from farming it.

Garlic farming is highly lucrative even when planting using local agronomical methods, investors can be sure of good returns as 1kg goes between N3, 500 to N6, 000.

Moreso, anyone can grow it so long one follows its do’s and don’ts. Garlic is best planted after  separating cloves from bulbs and later planted by inserting or pushing the cloves(small divisions that make a bulb) into the soil and thrives best with lower temperatures.

Harvest

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Garlic is ready to be harvested within planting interval of 3-4 months and once the leaves turn yellow or brown and the cloves can be felt in the bulb. Some warm climates enable the garlic to mature faster and ready for collecting more quickly than others.

Garlic has yield potential of 1-2/kg/ metre square on the average and can be more with good management, meaning a farmer can harvest an average of 5000kg (50m ×50m) which is  about 100× 50kg bags.

Profitability

Garlic farming business in Nigeria is a lucrative and profitable venture for start-up. It its has vast market demand and on your ability to build a wide supply chain network especially in urban areas and you can be sure of marking high profit when supply to Eastern, Southern and Western Nigeria.

Market

In Nigeria garlic remains a household spice due to its high medical values. You can ground them into powder or sell them in cloves, thus, there are many proven places to sell them after harvest. You can sell at  farmers’ markets, wholesale buyers  who buy garlic in bulk and then resell them to supermarkets and other retail outlets, online sales for restaurants and supermarkets, roadside markets and even supply to hotels.

Knowledge

Growing garlic does not require any difficult experience and it can grows well in a wide range of climate. Fadama areas or under irrigation during the dry season  is good for the plant. The planting period is usually from November to March when the temperature is low and it requires rainfall of between 600mm and 1200mm and minimum temperature of 5oC-25oC and maximum temperature of 25oC-40oC.

After selecting seedlings, prepare the land for cultivation as your seedlings should be inserted at a depth of 2 to 3 cm and to help them grow properly, the cloves should be planted at a spacing of 20 x 20 cm from each other. The soil condition need to be cool with mulching materials such as grass, and sawdust.