Tomato: Kano explores new techniques to address post-harvest loss

The Kano State government has revealed that it will continue to devise new ways and adopt new techniques that would address post-harvest loss in tomato value-chain as it remains one of the leading problems in tomato production in the state.

This was disclosed by the deputy governor of the state, Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, who is also the commissioner for agriculture, while addressing participants at the roundtable policy discussion on the reduction of post-harvest loss in tomato value-chain, organised by Technoserve.

According to him, the state, in partnership with other relevant bodies, is presently training tomato farmers on newly adopted techniques to reduce post-harvest loss in tomato.

“The Dangote tomato processing company is partnering with our farmers to improve production. What we did was to educate farmers on the new techniques that would ensure reduction in post-harvest loss.

“I can confirm that in the last two years, the price of fresh tomatoes has been fairly stable. In January 2019, a basket of tomatoes sold at N2,069; similarly, in 2020, the emerging price, which is N2,970 at the onset of the season, has remained fairly stable too”, Gawuna revealed.

Earlier in her remarks, the deputy country director of Technoserve Nigeria, Ayokanmi Ayuba, explained that the discussion was organised to address the issue of post-harvest loss reduction in the tomato value-chain and to discuss ways by which farmers would be assisted to reduce the loss and improve their production capacity.

“The goal of Technoserve’s YieldWise Project is to reduce post-harvest loss by 50 per cent throughout the tomato supply chain and increase average tomato income for 45,000 participating farmers by 50 per cent.

“The project will include farmers in the ‘tomato triangle’ region, including Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Kaduna and Plateau states,” Ayokanmi said.