If you are in Nigeria and you do not know about Tuta Absoluta, then you are not a proper Nigerian.
How can you know about the pest that has led to increase of the price of tomatoes in Nigeria? It is so powerful that it has caused the newly established Dangote Tomato Processing Factory in Kadawa, Kano State, to suspend production.
It has ravaged the tomato farms in Kano, Jigawa, Plateau, Katsina and Kaduna states and killed all the tomato species there. Specifically, the disease is said to have spread across tomato farmlands in the North of Nigeria, including areas in and around Makarfi, Hunkuyi, Soba and Zuntu villages in Kaduna State, Danja, Katsina State, and Kadawa, Dakasoye and Kura villages in Kano State.
Because of this “tomato ebola”, a basket of tomatoes which sold for between N500 – N800 about a month ago, now goes for N17,000 and N20,000.
The Tuta Absoluta is a harmful leaf mining moth which has a strong preference for the tomato plant. It is said that it can breed between 10-12 generations in a year with the female capable of laying between 250 – 300 eggs within its life time.
The case in Nigeria is so bad that Sellers bring in tomato from Ghana, Togo and Benin Republic to sell in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Government need to start taking drastic actions to curtail/control this pest. We should start engaging companies like Russell IPM to help manage this situation.
