Kano, Kaduna Tomato Farmers Equipped To Tackle Tuta Absoluta

HortiNigeria, a Dutch-funded horticulture programme implemented in Kano and other three states in Nigeria in collaboration with some other partners, has revealed that the project…

HortiNigeria, a Dutch-funded horticulture programme implemented in Kano and other three states in Nigeria in collaboration with some other partners, has revealed that the project will assist over 60,000 tomato farmers with newly adopted techniques in fighting the dreaded tomato pests known as Tuta absoluta in Kano and Kaduna states.

This was disclosed by the HortiNigeria Group Team lead Business linkage and advocacy, Malam Abdullahi Umar, during an affected communities outreach and inspection of demo farms where new management techniques such as chemical and biological pest management methods under the project’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) were deployed “We have a target of reaching out to over 60,000 farmers in Kano and Kaduna. The project has been training these farmers located in various tomato-producing areas in both project states. We have been encouraging tomato farmers never to give up on tomato production due to the pest attack because there are ways to manage the attack. Moreover, we have been linking up farmers with the market as well,” he said.

However, the Technical Specialist from Eastwesteed Knowledge Transfer under the project, Mr Sabastine Agada Obaje, stated that the demonstration has become very important so as to guide the farmers and for them to see the level of efficacy of the methodologies for easy replication on their tomato farms.

Similarly, one of the farmers, Malam Uba Bello said tomato farmers have been encountering serious challenges in pre-, during-harvest and post-harvest periods, adding that the new management technologies would surely assist the farmers to effectively manage the pests which had forced a lot of farmers out of business.