Know your onions

Project Kenten starts with a problem – Post Harvest Losses in Ghana and sharpens focus on tomatoes, okra, ginger and onions. The approach starts with process mapping from field to fork; then, identify challenges to highlight where we can make a difference, thoughts on issues beyond our scope or, signpost a viable investment opportunity. Climate, covid and conflict have complicated food security and now, existing high levels of imports are even more significant as inflationary pressures bite. Let’s look at a key ingredient …

Onions (Allium Cepa) came to Ghana in the 1930s to become a staple for stews and soups. The third largest vegetable crop after tomatoes and chili pepper, accounting for one-fifth of household vegetable spend – onions are low in nutrients and big on flavour.?

The Ghanaian onion market is expanding at an annual rate of 11 per cent (DFID, 2014) Even during peak onion production in Ghana, local onion output falls far short of the demand in the country. As a result, traders rely on imported onions to keep up with demand – imports?from neighbours Niger and Burkina Faso are key even during the peak local production season. Trade statistics are notoriously weak but some estimates suggest as much as 80 to 90 percent of onion in the local market is imported.?

Officially, onion imports are valued at around USD 52.9 million per year (van Asselt et al. 2018), but anecdotal evidence compiled by the Ghana Agricultural Producers and Traders Organization’s (GAPTO) suggests imports from Burkina Faso and Togo alone could be worth over USD 120 million each year (Gonzales et al. 2014; Citi News 2017). International sources (UN-Comtrade 2020), by contrast, report onion import values of between USD7million and 13 million between 2009 and 2018. These numbers illustrate how difficult it is to track market size and trends in a market with strong informal settings. Onions offer?an opportunity?for smallholder farmers and households but the business case is complex.

Onions are known for their hardiness and can be grown in almost any type of soil though loamy (clay and sand with hummus cover) soil is considered best for growing onions with the availability of full sun and a good drainage.?The crop is grown in?lowlands or near dams and river valleys?with irrigation. Fertilisers are a major issue across Ghana and, with crisis in Ukraine supply capacity is much reduced. What is needed for the soil and, is access working??

We move to variety of seeds, sets (renewable plants from the previous season) and transplants (already established). The local Bawku red variety is smaller and has a shorter maturity period than the imported Galmi variety. There are some common problems farmers have to deal with: onion worms laying eggs near the base of the plants; thrips, small flying insects that feed on leaves and, in wet soil rot at the neck or in splitting in dry conditions.?

In Ghana, the seed rate of?onion?is 3 to 4 kg /?acre. The farmer can expect a?yield?of 120 to 140 q/acre?or 12 t to 14 t/?acre?in 120 to 150 days after sowing.?More variety is needed to test these threats and from closer analysis will come better yields.?As of 2019, onion yields in Ghana were estimated to be approximately 19?tons per hectare (mt/ha) (MoFA, 2019). Meanwhile, other sources have estimated that the Bawku red cultivar will require between 10 and 20 mt/ha of land for production. Other cultivars produce 3.7 tons per hectare under rain-fed conditions and 12?tons per hectare under irrigation, with an average yield of 3.3?tons per hectare (MoFA, 2019).

Now we move to harvest and the key PHL factor. Compared to cereals onions are more perishable and speed to market is key. Historically, up to 2010, poor storage technologies for onions led to unacceptably high post-harvest losses, estimated at between 25 and 50 percent of the annual crop with opportunities to store and leverage better prices limited. This is because?onion production, like other vegetables in Ghana, is seasonal; therefore, prices tend to be lower immediately after harvest when supply is abundant but rise over the course of the marketing season. Most local production occurs from January to April. As such onion prices are lowest, on average, in April or May and peak in November or December.

As work is done on the farm, we need to be clear on feedback from various points of purchase. Project Kenten’s Lugu series of market interviews are clear – imported onions are tastier and merit a higher price.?According to the Greater Accra Onion Importers and Sellers Association, most consumers in Accra, Ghana’s largest consumer market, prefer onions from Niger due to their yellowish colour, better taste, and larger bulb sizes. Exploiting market potential would require a shift to all-year production and adoption of varieties preferred by consumers.?

Flavour is a key driver and this is something we need to explore further.

So far with Onions, we are identifying issues with soil quality, seed variety, harvesting techniques and storage. In addition to these constraints, there are other structural limitations, including the high cost of capital and limited availability of credit for investing in growing capacity and capability across Ghana. In March 2022, the Central Bank of Ghana raised interest rates to 17% - developed countries take note. Think of the borrowing costs and, the uncertainty over prices that stem from climate adaptation, covid and now conflicts. Inflation in Ghana is now running at 15.7% - the highest since October 2016.?

Then beyond the farm, market access is a complex issue combining the need for mentoring, networking, technical support as well as distribution networks for food processing plants, informal street markets, farmer markets and formal retail outlets. There are even issues around gender and generational succession – what is the age and educational level of the farmers we are meeting? How attractive is a career in farming for Ghanaian youth? Especially as so many farmers are remote. Is there a difference that agri-business and even urban farming can bring? All that said, with uncertainty surrounding established producers Ghana has never had such a clear opportunity to reduce imports and grow domestic volumes.?