Farmers in Katsina State have been struggling with poor tomato prices over the last few months, now they also have to face a fresh attack of tuta absoluta which is ravaging their farms.
The disease, which became prominent last year, affects the crop at both its nursery and maturity stages, damaging its leaves, stem and the fruits.
A tomato farmer in Kafur Local Government Area, Malam Abdullahi Rufa'i, said tomato farmers in the area were unhappy this year as they struggled with the poor market price of the commodity over the last three months and now that the prices are high, they are battling a pest attack.
"We have lost so much that we invested in tomato farming this year. Initially we recorded no pest attacks and the crop was so healthy and bore a lot of fruits, which resulted in a market glut that forced its price to crash.
Farmers were struggling to get buyers at N300 per big basket then, but now that its price has skyrocketed to N12,500, the disease is seriously decimating the yield of the crop," said Rufa'i.
(1 Nigerian Naira=0.0050 USD)
Source: allafrica.com