Tomato farmers in Nigeria often complain of huge losses and at a point last year, claimed to have lost about N10 billion worth of produce. This occurred because of the commodity perishing in large volumes, without them being able to sell off or get preservation.
“The Open market cannot mop all the harvest,” said Abdulahi Ringim, national president, Tomato Growers Association of Nigeria (TOGAN), at the time. Annually, value of the crop’s 40 percent average loss, is estimated at N72 billion, between farm and market.
According to the Nigeria Agribusiness Group, (NABG), Nigeria is currently the second largest producer of fresh tomatoes in Africa, producing 10.8 percent of fresh tomatoes in the region. Globally, the country is the 14th largest tomato producer with 2.3 million tonnes in 2016. This accounts for a marginal contribution of 1.2 percent of the world’s output in 2016.
Over the last decade, the production of fresh tomatoes in Nigeria has grown by 25 percent from 1.8 million tonnes to an estimated 2.3 million tonnes. However, this growth has been primarily facilitated by continuous increase in the harvested area for tomatoes from 265,000 hectares to 668,292 hectares in the same period.
However, between 2006 and 2016, tomato yields have remained very low at an average of 5.47 tonnes per hectare, relative to the world average yield of 38.1 tonnes per hectare. The use of old seedling varieties, pest and weed invasion and low soil fertility has contributed to the low tomato yield.
Nigerians consume an estimated 2.3 million tonnes of tomatoes annually, with tomato consumption per capita at 12kg in 2016. However, domestic production minus the tomato wasted along the value chain is 1.3 million tonnes, which is not sufficient to meet the demand. Hence, the country continues to rely on tomato paste importation to meet the existing gap.
Adewale Raji, group-managing director/CEO, Odu’a Investment Company, whose company has undertaken commercial farming of tomatoes with a 3,500 hectare farmland in Imeko, Ogun State, used the crop as an example of how fixing value chains can yield immense value for Nigeria.
He explained that fixing the tomato value chain for instance, starts from production, and not just post harvest losses that is widely known. According to him, Nigeria currently suffers from low yields in tomato cultivation, using an average yield of seven metric tonnes (MT) per hectare, whereas China records 48MT, U.S 81MT & Turkey 33MT.
The already bad situation of low productivity in Nigeria is then compounded by post harvest losses. With yields already low, about 30-50 percent is then still lost in Post Harvest waste.
However, if strategic measures are put in place, yields can be increased in manifolds, and post harvest losses reduced significantly. Raji, from his experience, stated Tomato can deliver yield of up to 40MT/ha in Nigeria with the right investments, technology & good agronomic practices.
Caleb Ojewale
