Skytech

The governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, yesterday declared a state-of-emergency on the tomato in the state, saying that 80 per cent of tomato farms  in the state have been ravaged by an exotic pest, called tomato blight ( Tuta Absoluta) with over 200 farmers in three local government areas of the state losing about N1billion.

el-Rufai who addressed newsmen at the Correspondent Chapel through his Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry yesterday said, already some officials of the ministry have been sent to Kenya to liaise with experts and return with a solution.

While lamenting that a basket of tomato now sells for about N42,000, he disclosed that,“I want to say that Governor Nasir el-Rufai has declared a state-of-emergency on tomatoes in the state. This is as a result of invasion of the crops by a pest named tomato blight botanically known as Tuta Aboluta.”

“In the past one month 12 LGAs of the state who produce tomatoes have lost 80 per cent of its tomatoes harvest. In three LGA, about 200 famers have lost N1billion worth of their tomatoes. So you can imagine the magnitude of the loss.

“It is so severe that even Dangote who has established a tomato processing plant in Kano, had to shut down production.

“The problem with the disease which is caused by a moth, is that no amount of spraying will kill the adult. You spray it, after about three hours, it revives back to life. So, we have sent some of our officials to travel to Kenya and meet our partners. Kenya has a good advantage on this issue over us.

“We understand that they use a plant extract to take care of this problem. But we do not have that knowledge yet. We expect them to return very soon with a short and medium term solution,” he said.

The governor also said that the state will vaccinate seven million livestock to secure both man and animal from infections diseases.

“About 63 per cent of all diseases that infect man are transmitted by animals. So vaccinating cats, dogs, horses and even poultry, is to protect man,” he said.

“Not long ago, a Professor of the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria was bitten by a dog and he died of rabies infection. We have received several cases with dog bits, because in the past 20 years there has been no any vaccination in the state.”