Farmers Record N1.3bn Loss As ‘Tomato Ebola’ Ravages Farms

Nigerian farmers are facing Tuta Absoluta, also known as Tomato Ebola, which is destroying tomato plants in some regions of the country and prompting farmers to record losses of up to N1.3 billion.

This suggests that a shortage of perishable food, namely tomatoes, may be approaching. An insect called Tuta Absoluta makes its nest behind tomato leaves.

According to Vanguard, Sani Danladi, chairman of the National Tomato Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, said this at a recent gathering in Abuja. He bemoaned the enormous losses that more than 500 farmers in Kano have suffered, while it is unknown how many farmers in Katsina, Jigawa, Kaduna, and Gombe have been impacted.

He said;

When Tuta Absoluta enters the farmer’s farm it destroys everything there within three days no matter how big or small it is. Looking at the quantum of investing on one hectare of farmland to produce tomato it costs not less than N1.7 million. It is not a small amount of money farmers are losing every year of this disease manifests. This year the devastation is very high because we had low production and the disease came and ravaged all produced by the farmers.

We have reported it to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, NABG and other stakeholders on how can we stop the spread of this disease. This year more than 300 hectares have been destroyed by this disease which affected more than 500 farmers only in Kano State, but also affected farmers in Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa and Gombe States, and we are still collecting the data from the remaining states. Now 90 per cent of tomato in Kano has gone because of Tuta Absoluta devastation.

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