The Kaduna State government has declared a state of emergency on tomatoes.
This is following an outbreak of tomato blight which has reportedly wiped out close to 80% of tomato farms in the state.
The state’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Forestry, Dr. Manzo Maigari, who revealed this at a news conference to mark the one year anniversary of the Nasir El-Rufai administration in the state said the disease outbreak is largely responsible for the scarcity of tomatoes in Nigeria.
While explaining that the tomato disease is caused by an insect called ‘leaf miner’, which eats up the tomato leaves and the soft parts, the Commissioner disclosed that a team of officials from the ministry have been dispatched to Kenya to seek intervention.
He also noted that over 200 farmers have been affected with loses put at over N1billion.
GOURMETGUIDE234.COM can authoritatively tell you that this infestation has inflated the cost of tomatoes in virtually every Nigerian market.
And we have noticed that the tomatoes which are now harvested are not as rouge as they used to be!
Right now a basket of the tomatoes sell for as high as N40, 000.
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