We want export intervention for fresh tomato through green house availability - Sani Danladi Yadakwari

Can you introduce yourself?
 

My name is Sani Danladi Yadakwari, I am the Secretary General Tomato Growers’ Association of Nigeria.

I know Nigerians particularly from the Northern part of the country e.g. Kano, Jigawa etc grow a lot of this produce, 

how do your association manage to grow as plenty as you grow?

You know this Association is newly emerged and registered with corporate affairs commission in 2013. The reason behind our registration as an association is to proffer solution to reducing great losses farmers incurred after harvest which is reaping off many of our profit. You will agree with me that tomato is a perishable produce as the process to store it is very expensive and a lot is required to do it which is beyond an individual farmer. So we form ourselves together to see how we can approach Government as a group which is what will make government to listen to us especially with the present Transformation Agenda of Mr. President as regard giving assistance and intervention or necessary information for the development of the tomato in Nigeria because tomato has lager market all over the world but its value diminishes when processed.  So there are many issue involved in the production of it as improved seeds is among, transportation is there and off takers’ challenges are all issued to be addressed for the way forward.

Now that you have formed yourself into association with members in all the states, how far have you been able to go?

We have members in Kano state, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Katsina, Ogun and Ondo states. These are the pilot states that we are having member for now.

What is the level of support you have been getting as an association?

You know we have contact with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development under horticultural department and we also have a collaboration with the Dangote groups through its Dansa foods tomato processing in Kano as the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, now the Emir of kano joined us with Dangote under NIRSAL, but Dangote is doing all effort to ensure they start picking our tomatoes so as to address the issue of wastages and losses of farmers in the country.

 Can you describe the level of processing going on at the Dansa food?

Up till now the company has not taken off but we are pleading to the company as we are informed of challenges with the technical partners from abroad who could not get visa from their country to come to Nigeria due to Ebola disease but we thank God the whole world has accepted that there is no more Ebola in Nigeria. We are hoping those technical partners will now come to complete their work for the company to start off.

What are the other interventions that can assist your production as association?

You know tomato farming is very costly, the intervention we need from government is helping us to find a way of exporting our tomato through availability of green houses for premium tomato production that will be exportable to the outside world. We need a shade house cultivation called green house. Recently we had two trips to Senegal through the support of Dangote, International Fund Cooperation (IFC), FMARD, Ministry of Water Resources, Fadama 111 and Kano state government. We are about eight groups that went to St. Lious for five days visit to understudy tomato farming and after this trip, I sponsor myself to Ghana where there is a company called SBL which is in collaboration with the University of Ghana as they major in Green House farming. This green house is far developed than what we presently have in the country. We are already trying to invite them to Nigeria thereby making the market price for a green house more competitive as farmers will have opportunity of making choice among available products from different company thereby bringing down the prices for the benefit of small scale farmers. 

You will agree that farming under the green house will make the price of the tomatoes produce more appreciable both locally and internationally. For example if you are selling one kilogramme of tomatoes that is produced at a open farm at N200, the one from the green house will sell for N400 as the quality of the one produced in the green house is temperature controlled with less heat attraction and it is more globally accepted in term of price premium. So we want government to intervene by ensuring that farmers are assisted by allowing SBL and other companies to come into Nigeria to invest in green house for tomato cultivation thereby allowing price competitiveness that will enable small scale farmers to be able to purchase it through access to loan assistance.

Which is better, to export without process or to process cultivated tomato in Nigeria?

The fresh produce is far better in marketing than the processed one because in the processing, you will have to put a concentrate while a fresh tomato does not need any concentrate. The ones cultivated on the green house are fresher due to less heat because of the controlled temperature environment of its cultivation, so the price is higher for both local and international consumption. In local market, we have big stores like Shoprite that are looking for this type of produce from controlled environment. Also, we need some intervention, you know tomato farming is very costly to farm because we need a shade normally called the green house, so the intervention we need from the government is to find us way of exporting our produce with ensuring availability of green houses at very competitive prices by allowing investors in the area of green houses.