The pilot for a tomato farming project by Olam in Kano and Jigawa states is showing early signs of progress that could offer solutions to the challenge of abysmal yields in the country. At an estimated 30 tons per hectare yield, Agribusiness Insight during a visit to some of the farm locations this week, saw an approach to tomato farming that could ramp up production from an estimated national average of 4 metric tonnes per hectare.
The pilot project, which started in September 2019, is currently running on about 20 hectares and is to be expanded to 500 hectares by September this year (one year after). It will also see the commencement of a larger out growers programme to engage 1000 farmers to be trained and provided with seeds that will deliver the same kind of output the pilot farms are recording.
“We wanted to start something on the backward integration for tomato, and we decided to start by testing out good varieties that would be suitable in Nigeria,” said Reji George, Olam’s vice president in charge of farming programs in Nigeria. According to him, the major problem for the Nigerian tomato is that there are lack of good varieties to plant, subsequently, farm yields are extremely poor, making farmers have to place high prices on tomatoes to compensate for their low production volume. However, if yields were higher, farmers would have been able to sell lower, thereby incentivising processors to purchase from them in bulk, reduce wastage, and create more employment. Currently, Nigeria’s records up to 40 percent postharvest losses in tomato, losing 700 thousand metric tonnes out of 1.5 million metric tonnes (MMT) produced. Yet, the country has a deficit of 1.4 MMT since demand is 2.2 MMT.
“When a farmer produces (less than) 10 metric tonnes per hectare, it does not make economic sense either for the farmer of the processors who are willing to buy,” said George. This he said is because when a farmer produces less quantity, prices will be higher and processors will not be able to buy at that price and make their processing viable also.
Even though the pilot projects are currently running in Kano and Jigawa, there appears to be a preference to settle for Jigawa when the processing facility will be installed. This derives from the existence of a processing plant in Kano already (owned by the Dangote Group) albeit not operational. According to George, Jigawa offers higher table waters, more land expanse for utilisation in a stretch, but final selection will be done after a final evaluation of yields from the project later this year.
A small out grower program that currently exists, is supporting farmers to start developing best practices in tomato cultivation so that they can contribute to the company’s processing requirements when the production unit is eventually installed. It is expected by that time, farmers yields would have gone up several folds, so that they are able to supply at favourable price points for processing. Importantly also, that the right varieties of tomatoes would start getting produced, that will deliver more pulpy content, less water, and the right colour.
While direct cultivation by Olam and engagement of outgrower farmers form two legs of how the company intends to source its raw material when production of tomato paste starts, the third source will be through the open market. However, in order for the open market to offer quality products and at the right prices, knowledge on best practices to improve productivity need to be disseminated widely among farmers. Not just for the benefit of Olam but the industry at large.
The lack of raw materials through inconsistent supply of tomatoes has seen a number of tomato processing companies shutting down their operations in the country. This lack of raw materials occurs through highly priced tomatoes that do not make economic sense for processors to buy enough and process, as well as issues around qualities of tomatoes being supplied.
