News in brief: An outbreak of Tuta Absoluta infestation, known commonly as tomato ebola, is causing significant losses for farmers in Northern Nigeria, with billions of naira lost in investments and a projected deficit of 3 million metric tons of tomatoes in 2023. Efforts are underway to combat the infestation, including raising funds, producing resistant hybrid seeds, and implementing Integrated Pest Management packages.
Tomato ebola, the common name for an outbreak of Tuta Absoluta pests, is ravaging farms in Northern parts of Nigeria threatening scarcity and causing huge losses for farmers.
Dr Deola Lordbanjoce, horticulture director at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), said that ground zero was Galama Local Government, Kano. Although, it has since spread to regions in other states like Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa and Gombe.
Billions in losses and rising
The farmers in Kano may have lost up to â¦â1.3 billion in investments, Lordbanjoce added, as quoted in this news report. This loss arise from ruined harvest as affected farmers invested in inputs but now have little or nothing to show for it. The ministry is still crunching data from other affected states to see losses recorded.
Also worth considering is what the Tuta absoluta destruction means for Nigerians. Lordbanjoce claims that the country typically has a deficit of 1.3 million metric tons (MT) with total need amounting to 5.4 million MT. However, with poor harvest, the FMARD horticulture director expects deficit to rise to 3 million MT in 2023.
Tomato alternatives as Tuta Absoluta rampages
The rough translation of the situation is that majority of the tomato needs may rely on imports for satisfaction. Also, the few tomato available will go to the highest bidder, leading to price hikes.
Nutritionists are advising Nigerians to consider tomato alternatives like switching tomato stew or sauce with other sauces that don’t need it: cat fish pepper soup, veggie chicken gravy, palm nut soup, and so on.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel Ijewere, the president of Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG), highlighted several factors contributing to the persistence of the infestation despite collaborative efforts from the group, federal government, and several other institutions, including the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
“The insects have decided to build their homes under the leaves and when the insecticide is sprayed it doesnât affect them,” Ijewere claimed. “Climate change has enhanced the movement of pests around the field; the warm environment helps them to spread wide, increased humidity allow these pests to thrive.”
Providing more insight into the infestation pattern, the Secretary General, National Tomato Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Sani Danladi said that it is usually higher when temperature rises, that is later in the year.
“From January to March, tomato is very cheap in Nigeria but from April upward it becomes very scarce because farmers are afraid of doing late transplanting,” Danladi explained. He claimed that Kano farmers have lost 90 per cent of their tomato to the Tuta Absoluta destruction.
Ongoing efforts to fight tomato ebola
FMARD is working to raise money to continue battling the infestations and fund the Nigerian Horticultural Research Institute’s (NIHORT) work in producing hybrid seeds that provide some level of resistance against the pests. In addition, the ministry is providing funding for some Integrated Pest Management (IPM) packages to control the outbreak.
Dr Manzo Maigari, who serves as the director general of NABG, also suggested calling on all major stakeholders to pull their weight. Maigari recalls that they had done something similar in 2016 when tomato ebola was at an ‘epidemic level’.
“We have also seen the entrance of a new stakeholder, Horti Nigeria, funded by the Dutch Government, and they also have a regime of practices that has proven beneficial to farmers because in the clusters that are managed by them so far there is resistance by the Tuta Absoluta,” the NABG DG added.
