FREEPRESS – The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, has listed six states in the country where the pest, tuta absoluta, also known as ‘tomato ebola’, has ravaged the production of tomatoes leading to a scarcity of the staple.
Speaking during a press briefing in Abuja, he listed the states as Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Plateau and Lagos but declared that the Federal Government was making efforts to contain the outbreak.
“The pest can also attack even pepper and Irish potato. So we are confronting something quite serious. But the good thing is that we are tackling it right now as experts will commence work immediately,” he said.
“We are bringing the Commissioners and Governors of states to jointly attack this pest, which, if not dealt with, will create serious problems for food security in our country.”
He revealed that the reproductive nature of the pest coupled with a thriving environment and a lack of know how to contain the pest as the reasons why the pest is thriving but added that the government was consulting with experts to solve the pest situation.
He said the experts had offered other varieties of tomato that grow well in the western part of the country as alternatives and denied reports that tomato processing factories were responsible for the scarcity, saying the factories were also affected by the situation.
“We have two processing plants for tomato paste in Nigeria, Erisco and Dangote, and their capacities are huge. We welcome their arrival because our annual import bill of tomato paste is about $400m and it is a good sign that we can now produce here and make money for our farmers,” he said.
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