Tomato scarcity Looms Over “Tuta Absoluta Outbreak ”

Tomato growers have expressed concern over the recent outbreak of the Tuta Absoluta virus infestation, which is affecting the price of produce in various markets across the country.

They expressed their concerns in separate interviews with journalists on Sunday in Lagos. Tuta Absoluta, also known as the tomato leaf miner, is a serious pest of tomato crops in Europe, Africa, western Asia, and South and Central America. Its larvae cause up to 100 per cent loss if not effectively controlled. Tuta Absoluta can ravage tomato cultivation in a little above 48 hours – prompting farmers to nickname it Tomato Ebola.

It can breed between 10 and 12 generations in a year, with the female capable of laying about 250 to 300 eggs within its lifetime. The chairman of the Tomato Growers and Processors Association of Nigeria, Rabiu Zuntu, said the recent outbreak of the virus, which began in March, had affected the price of the produce in the local markets. “The virus does not affect the tomatoes much during the wet season except during the hot season. The temperature has been unusually high in recent times, and it causes humidity in the soil. Now, here in the north, in the market, a 50kg basket of tomatoes sells for about N30,000 due to the infestation. Before the outbreak, a basket of tomatoes was sold between N5,000 and N10,000 because this is actually the season for tomato harvests,” Mr Zuntu said.

In preventing the spread of the virus, he also noted, “Humidity in the soil poses a more probable cause for the rapid spread of the flu in tomato farms infected.
“The outbreak of the Tuta Absoluta virus cannot be prevented totally because no one can stop humidity from taking place. However, we can take some preventive measures to curtail its spread. Even when we plant climate-resistant or disease-resistant seeds, they are still susceptible to the Tuta Absoluta virus infestation. What we can do to curtail it from spreading is to apply the Integrated Pest Management approach.” On his part, the national president of the Tomatoes and Orchard Processors Association of Nigeria (TOPAN), Bola Oyeleke, said the outbreak had a minimal effect on price because the crop is already in its harvest stage.

“We can still see tomatoes coming to the market daily, but if the infestation is on, it is probably affecting crops newly planted. The Tuta Absoluta virus is one of the major problems plaguing tomato cultivation in Nigeria,” Mr Oyeleke said. However, he noted that local farmers must work together to continually prevent the virus outbreak. The only solution is that we have to start introducing more technology for land preparation for our farmers to forestall these frequent outbreaks. The land preparation for small-scale farmers should be a general thing. If it is in a local government area, they should start land preparation together” to prevent pests.