The Siriami Journey: Meet the Teaching Assistant now a Pig Farmer

Nelson Maxwell Acquah studied Business Administration at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and later obtained a masters in Brand Marketing in the United Kingdom.

He had dreamed of a career that looked like Business Administration, possibly be a Director or a consultant in one of Ghana’s top companies.

But after school when the realities of Ghana’s situation dawned on him, he began to look within instead of his books. He realised there was a farmer in him.

His perspective about employment, a popular one of being a salaried worker, sitting in a cozy office surrounded by files, laptops changed.

He began to see of employment as using your God-given abilities, passion and talent to create opportunities for yourself and others.

And with this redefinition in mind he set out to follow his first love, farming. This birthed the Siriami Farms dream.

Siriami farms sits on an over 200 acre land at Tinkong in the Eastern Region, primarily focused on Pig farming.

Theghanareport.com got up close with the 34-year-old farmer and businessman whose pig farm has become arguably one of the largest in Ghana’s capital, Accra.

Mr Acquah said his interest in farming shot up during his teaching assistant days at the university under the tutorship of Professor Boakye Amoako Attah, now late.

The journey, he said started somewhere in 2013, with a vegetable farm, cultivating all kinds of vegetables from cabbage, carrot, tomatoes, cucumbers and others.

He, however, failed to hit his target due to the lackadaisical behaviour of the workers.

Mr Acquah was again compelled to fold up the whole vegetable farm idea in 2015 when the caretakers absconded with proceeds from the farm.

After realising vegetable farming was not for him, he takes up poultry. With poultry, the challenge of constantly applying insecticide was a daunting task.

You are likely to have diseases spreading to other parts of the farm if care was not taken. So, that was the last of poultry trade.

The pertinacious farmer did not give up. With a renewed strength he decided to venture into piggery. In January 2019, he started with the first batch of 64 animals.

The young farmer told his friends about the idea of venturing into pig farming with the hope that they would show that same enthusiasm and invest in the business.

But his friends, he said, were focused on a business that one could easily get returns in a couple of months and not a long term project.

He found solace in his Aunty who believed in him, the duo are now directors of the over 200-acre pig farm.

The teaching assistant now farmer said he has not regretted towing this path.

The proceeds, from the farm, he said has been enormous because pigs are resilient and could withstand days without food or drugs.

This means you don’t risk losing the piglets unlike the poultry. And in terms of multiplying they were they best, he said.

“If I get 10 piglets, in a year I will have 20 of them,” he explained.

Asked if it was expensive to manage a pig farm, he said it was extremely expensive, particularly with their feeding and medication.

The young farmer who hopes to get the best farmer award is unperturbed, he remains strong despite all these financial hurdles.

Mr Acquah said his guiding principle has always been believing in one’s dream and working tirelessly to achieve it.

The farm now boasts of 10 permanent staff, three graduates and seven other fulfilment associates.

One peculiar thing about the farm is that the names selected for each hog parlor identifies with the Ghanaian culture,

Names like Gold Coast complex [Ghana’s former name] , Nyaniba complex [Associated with mother of Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah] are among the few.

Although, there have been several initiatives and programmes in the agriculture sector, Mr Acquah believes a lot more can be done.

He said there should be price regulation mechanisms in place to ensure traders do not increase their wares unnecessarily.

“Let us take feed for instance, just September – October last year I was buying a bag of maize for GHC60 and now that same bag is going for GHC130. It would have been easier if there is price control but here products are determined by demand and supply.

“They need to have a plan, they should be able to ask themselves what are they hoping to achieve. The Planting for Food and jobs is a good initiative but what do we want to achieve, is it that we want to produce a whole lot of food and/or produce at a cheaper price.

“The gov’t always want to say I have given 20,000 fertilizers, we should ask ourselves what is the total acreage they are calculating so a lot more can be done,” he pointed.

What the future looks like for Siriami Farms

The 34-year-old farmer said they are targeting 10, 000 matured females (Pigs) which will translate to about 200,000 animals in a year.

He is hoping to expand the pig business to other major regions in the country.

Mr Acquah is also looking at starting a piggery school which will give people hands on training on the best practices of farming like the free range system, IMO and others.

Aside pig farming, the young farmer is looking forward to harvesting his maize, which he started not long ago.

Asked if he considered himself a rich man, he laughs heartily and simply says “No, I am not there yet”.

Advise to the youth 

“Generally farming is a profitable venture, specialize in one area and you are good to go. It is not easy but they should be determined and set their minds to it. There will be bumps on the road but they should remain focus,” he said.