Just when the nation’s tomato farmers were beginning to reap the rewards of the government’s stopping of the importation of substandard tomato produce, which was costing Nigeria N80bn annually, there comes a plague that is threatening to wipe out tomato farms.

Its devastating effects have prompted Nigeria’s and Africa’s wealthiest man, Aliko Dangote, to suspend production at his recently built tomato processing plant in northern Kano state because of a lack of tomatoes. The culprit is a moth with the biological name tuta absoluta, aka the tomato leafminer, but now generally referred to as the ‘Tomato Ebola’, reflecting its destructive power in comparison to the dreaded Ebola virus.

Tomato Ebola Tuta absoluta is a grey-brown species of moth that is about 7mm long, with the ability to wipe out a farm within days. A female pest can produce up to 260 eggs in 21 days. This reproductive capability, coupled with a lack of expertise concerning its control, were the reasons for its spread and the scale of the devastation. The tomato is the main host plant, but tuta absoluta also attacks other crop plants, including potato and pepper plants. Eight to ten generations can occur in a single year if the conditions are favourable.

The larva attacks the leaves of the tomato plant by feeding on it voraciously, producing large galleries in leaves, and consuming green and ripe fruits, consequently causing up to 100% loss in yield in some farms.

All the available and usual pesticides have been applied to no avail, as the larvae have developed resistance to them, reviving themselves about three hours after being sprayed with pesticides. Eighty per cent of Nigeria’s tomato production has been hit by the plague, which has become widespread and now affects production in six states: Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Plateau, Kaduna and Lagos. Hundreds of hectares of tomato farms have been ravaged, resulting in a scarcity, thereby sky-rocketing the prices in the market. The cost of tomatoes has increased at least five-fold, or 500%, with no sign of slowing down. The current crisis is a huge blow for Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari who has been urging the nation to return to agriculture to minimise the economy’s dependency on petroleum, which is now causing suffering due to the huge decrease in the crude oil market price.

Source: https://www.naij.com/847367-revealed-truth-behind-scarcity-tomatoes-nigeria.html