Pest attack reduces tomato supply in Katsina market

The farmers said strange worms attack the plant’s leaves and destroy the ripe tomatoes; a situation that is drastically affecting yield as well as the price of the commodity in the market.A tomato farmer in Funtua, Alhaji Ahmadu Musa Goya, said the recent price hike of the commodity is as a result of the pest […]

The farmers said strange worms attack the plant’s leaves and destroy the ripe tomatoes; a situation that is drastically affecting yield as well as the price of the commodity in the market.
A tomato farmer in Funtua, Alhaji Ahmadu Musa Goya, said the recent price hike of the commodity is as a result of the pest attack that has affected its supply in the markets, adding, “we have been harvesting our tomatoes without any problem until recently when there was this pest attack on our farms. We suspect that the shortage of water we are experiencing here and the hot weather may be responsible. The situation is seriously affecting our business because in a farm where we expect to get 50 baskets, you can only get about 20 baskets now,” he said.
He further explained that they are trying to avoid the application of pesticide at the maturity stage of the tomato as that could cause possible adverse effect on its consumers.
Some of the irrigation farmers interviewed in Danja LGA called on Katsina State government to double up its effort in supporting them with adequate and relevant remedy against the menace as well as boosting their source of water such as boreholes in their farms.
A tomato merchant in Funtua, Malam Inusa Abubakar Jagaba, said the unfortunate situation is reducing tomato supply to the market since one week now, adding that “farmers are losing a lot of tomatoes in their farms because of the menace which is seriously shortening the market supply of the commodity making its price to jack up to N3,400 from N1,700 per big basket last week.”