‘Nigeria must redesign plantain/banana and tomato agric policy’

NIGERIAN Agricultural policy makers have been advised to consider the significance of plantain/banana and tomato production in domestic and international market and come up with sustainablew production policy that will check excessive rate of wastages during the harvest.

This call was made by the Acting Executive Director, the National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), Dr Abayomi Olaniyan while speaking during the three days capacity building training workshop on plantain/banana and tomato value chain for select farmers in Oyo state by projecktlink Konsult Limited on behalf of NIHORT.

The project was also partnered by the member representing Ibadan North East/South East at the House of Representatives, Dapo Lam-Adesina, who facilitated the training and empowered about 50 participants with starter kits.

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According to Dr Olaniyan, “Plantain/Banana and Tomato in recent times have become more important both at the domestic and foreign market.  Plantain is an important food and cash crop with outstanding and proven medical and industrial relevance.  It is a major staple food in Africa, and its sustained production must be considered at the national and global agricultural policy levels. Excess are produced during the season leading to wastages. During glut, the excess can be stored in form of plantain powder to be preserved.

“Tomato is one of the most important and major vegetable grown in Nigeria. Tomato is an essential cooking ingredient in the country. It is a valuable raw material in processed products such as juice, puree, paste, ketchup/sauce, dry slices, powder and canned or bottle whole. It is widely cultivated due to the economic and nutritional importance of the crop. It is a profitable horticultural crop and provides income to farmers and agents involved in production and marketing. There is the need to process tomato in order to reduce seasonal glut and inconsistent year round supply.

“To avoid the pitfalls of the past, it is important to create awareness among stakeholders and deliberately cultivate a widespread attitude of adding value to horticultural commodities in order to promote broad varieties of product, storability, wider usage and applications, enhanced returns to investment and export competitiveness.