Kaduna state commissioner for agriculture and forestry Manzo Daniel today disclosed that the state government has declared a state of emer...
''The tomato blight is cause by an insect called the leafminer which is scientifically called Tuta absoluta..Whta it does is to eat up the tomato leaf and the soft parts. Unfortuntely for us the infestation occured last year on a smaller scale ,but it was not documented and when we came in we didnt know about it until it hit us hard.A team of officials have been dispatched to Kenya to seek intervention..We have it on authority that there is an extract of a plant that is effective against the developing stages of the moth, unfortunately the adults are not susceptible if you spray them within 3hours they develop resistance .It is a serious issue and we had to declare a state of emergency on the commodity, to underscore the seriousness of the infestation, the dangote tomato factory in kano has shut down due to lack of raw materials'' he lamented.
Kaduna state commissioner for agriculture and forestry said that over 200 farmers have incurred losses up to N1BILLION as a result of the infestation as basket of tomato now goes for N42,ooo.
