El-Rufai declares state of emergency on tomatoes

Ahead of May 29 democracy day, Kaduna State government has declared a state of emergency on tomatoes due to the Tomato Blight (Tuta Absoluta) that attacked and destroyed most of the tomato farms in the state recently.

Tuta Absoluta is a moth that has a reputation for swiftly ravaging tomato cultivation in a little above 48 hours, prompting farmers to nickname it Tomato Ebola.

In a press briefing at the Correspondents’ Chapel, Daniel Manzo Magairi, Kaduna State commissioner for agriculture, said the state was also partnering Kenya to fight Tula Absoluta.

Magairi also said about 12 local government areas were affected by this disease, and told the journalists that the state was on top of the issue as it had gone into partnership with Kenya to fight the disease, adding that the disease was not peculiar to Kaduna State.

Most of the tomato farms in Kano, Jigawa, Plateau, and Katsina states are also affected by the disease, which killed all the tomato species and make it difficult to get fresh tomato produce in the market across the country.

The country has almost 180 million population and tomato serves as staple for the majority of this number.

Nigeria is the 13 largest producer of tomato in the world and the second after Egypt in Africa, yet the country is still unable to meet local demand because about 50 percent of tomato produce is wasted due to lack of storage facility, poor handling practice, and bad transportation network across the country.

In addressing the current Tuta issues, experts have called on the government to look at ways to best integrate pest management strategy among farmers to ameliorate the damage of the pest.