Technical And Economic Sheet On The Conditions For Production And Marketing Fresh Moringa Leaves In Niger

MORINGANEWS
This document was produced with the financial assistance of CTA. The ideas expressed in it are those of the authors and cannot be considered as the opinion of CTA.

Technical and economic sheet on the conditions for production and marketing fresh Moringa leaves in NIGER

Mariama Gamatié (INRAN) and Armelle de Saint Sauveur (Moringanews)

1. Localisation andcharacteristics

The villages visited are all located on the right bank of the Niger river between 20 and 35 km to the northwest of Niamey between isohyets 500 and 600 mm of rainfall.
Three seasons: hot and dry (5 months), fresh and dry (4 months) and hot and rainy (3 months)
Other harvests grown: cereals, rice, market garden plants
Sahelian landscape type.

2. Cropping system and density
In the zonessurveyed, four cropping systems are used: plantations with Moringa only (monoculture), Moringa in association with fruit trees in orchards, Moringa as a live hedge on off season sites and finally, Moringa combined either with winter culture or market gardening.
The systems represented in the study are mono-cropping, with high densities (spacing of 1m x 1m or even less), and intercropping (withcereals or market garden plants). In the zones surveyed, production of Moringa remains a principal and subsistence activity practiced throughout the year (12 months out of twelve). Producers work on small surface areas (0.01 ha to 0.07 ha).

Almost all systems are irrigated, mostly manually (from wells).

3. Crop management

Harvests are far more frequent than in the Benin NGO system.Harvesting is done by ripping off the leaves, and not by cutting the branches.
Plants are pruned once or twice a year to maintain a bushy habit.

Pest-control is also used in case of parasite attack. Treatment is with insecticides. Two types of products are used for phytosanitary treatment of infested Moringa plants:
• Dicaphol used against acarians especially red mite
• Dimethoate used againstcaterpillars and whitefly.
Producers buy these products from private agricultural product retailers.

Fertilisation is done either with organic manure or with mineral fertiliser. Very few producers (3 out of 10) use chemical fertiliser. On the other hand, all producers use organic manure because it is more readily available, more accessible and cheaper than mineral fertiliser.

On average,labour is 25% from the family and 75% hired. According to our surveys, harvesting and watering are the activities that require the use of paid labour. Planting, renewal of plants and treatments are the activities generally practiced by the family. During the harvest, the paid employees vary from 1 to 10 people depending on the size of the plot, averaging 250 to 300 FCFA per person.

4. Yield

Tablen°1: Weight of fresh Moringa oleifera leaves (results from monitoring
producers in the zone of Sarando, Niamey)



Plot N°

Size (ha) Production of fresh Moringa leaves

Mean weight of fresh leaves harvested on one tree (kg) Mean weight of one full bag (kg) Quantity of fresh leaves harvested (June-July)
Harv.1
(Bags) Harv.2
(Bags) Harv.3
(Bags) Harv.4
(Bags)
1 0.02 0.85 13 23 5 9
2 0.04 0.90 14 5 8 10 14
3 0.12 1.35 16 7 11 14 20
4 0.04 0.50 15 7 8 11 15
5 0.06 0.62 14 7 10 12 20
6 0.03 1.07 16 4 6 9 13
7 0.05 1.45 15 6 9 13 16
8 0.04 1.04 15 5 8 12 17
9 0.07 1.3 16 7 10 14 18
total 0.47 50 73 100 142

The analysis of table n°1 provides us with the following results: an average production of 91.25 bags of fresh Moringa leaves per harvest from a totalsurface area of 0.47 ha; or production of 194 bags per harvest and per hectare (91.25/0.47). The average weight of the bag of fresh leaves is 15 kg, so we have 2,912 kg/ha and per harvest.
2,912 kg / ha x 6 harvests = 17,472 kg / ha/ rainy season
The estimate of the number of harvests per year has been made as follows:

Seasons Duration Frequency of harvest Number of harvests
Rainy season...