Tomato Ebola destroy farms in three northern states

The President, National Tomato Outgrowers Association of Nigeria (TOGAN) Mr. Abdullahi Ringim has said the popular disease called Tuta absoluta, otherwise known as tomatoes ebola have destroyed farms of their members in Kano, Kaduna, and Katsina states.
Mr. Abdullahi Ringim revealed this during an interview with Food Farm News.

Ringim said that farmers in the aforementioned states experienced tomato ebola attacks that ravaged their members’ farms with huge devastating effect on supply to the market as many may also find it difficult to pay their loans.

According to him “I will say that the virus manifested almost around April which was the end of the tomato season. Obviously, the recent attack of Tuta absoluta on farms  will  make Farmers to lose more yields and  huge money, due to not being able to meet up with expected harvest as some of them may even have difficulty to pay back the loan’’

He said some of the affected farmers in these states have been supported with the remains of chemicals given to the Association by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) in partnership with some other non-governmental organizations about two years ago, saying that ‘’ to the best of my knowledge we are yet to be contacted by the ministry’’

 The National Secretary of the Association, and the chairman, Kano state chapter, Alhaiji Sani Danladi also confirmed that the Tuta absoluta has resurfaced in the state destroying tomatoes in a large quantity, and thereby causing an astronomical increase in the market price of the produce.

Danladi who asked for government’s waiver on tomatoes loss said that  "We want to let the government know that farmers,  most especially those under the Anchor Borrowers Programme ( ABP) who experience this problem "tuta absoluta" have definitely lost a lot, so we are seeking the government to give us waiver on the loss. You know tomato is not something you can preserve on the farm, because you have to harvest as it ripen so as to avoid being decayed on the farms’’