The Tomato Ebola : Nigerian Government declares Emergency on lost supplies of the country’s Staple food
How would you feel, if one morning you wake up and see that swarms of insects have destroyed your days of hardwork and toil and that too, just before when you were going to reap the fruit of your labour.
It’s really heartbreaking right.
But this is what has happened to our fellow Nigerian farmers. Their days of hardship under the sun and scorching heat lead to nothing as swathes of tomato fields were destroyed by the moth, Tuta absoluta, which lead to a threatening condition of the supplies of the Nigeria’s leading staple food.
Considering this situation, a state government in northern Nigeria declared a state of emergency on the destroyed food crop.
After the deadly Ebola disease that devastated West Africa in 2014, the Nigerian farmers describe the tomato devastation outbreak as ‘Tomato Ebola’.
Even though the name sounds funny, the condition is not as it is creating fear and sadness in the Nigerian people. Sources from social media report that the Nigerians voice fears as they would not be able to make jollof rice — a beloved national dish made with tomato paste
— because of the scarcity.Tomato prices have shot up as a result of the moth destruction, adding to existing hardships from a 67 percent rise in the price of petrol and spiralling inflation in Africa’s largest economy.
“We have declared a state of emergency over the outbreak of a moth that has destroyed over 80 percent of tomato farms in the state,” Kaduna state agriculture commissioner Manzo Daniel said.
The tomato shortage caused by the outbreak has caused prices to go up “astronomically”, he added.
A wholesale basket containing hundreds of tomatoes now sells for 42,000 naira ($212, 186 euros), up from 300 to 1,500 naira before the outbreak, he said.
“This is only the beginning of a disaster if we don’t take drastic measures because the disease is fast spreading across the north,” he warned.
More than 200 tomato farmers in the region have already suffered losses of more than one billion naira from the disease, he said.
Experts have been sent to Kenya to develop a strategy to combat the brown moth, which lays eggs on tomato plants and develops into a hungry caterpillar that feeds on the leaves, stems and fruit.
More than 90 percent of 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of tomato fields outside the northern city of Kano have been destroyed by the insect, according to the state’s agriculture officials.
A $200-million tomato processing factory built by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has been forced to shut down because of the shortfall in supply, managing director Abdulkareem Kaita said.
Tuta absoluta, which originated in South America and spread to Europe and Africa, quickly develops resistance to pesticides, making it difficult to contain.