Tomato Ebola: What’s The Alternative.

Nigeria is witnessing shortage of tomatoes, due to a pest (Tuta absoluta otherwise called tomato ebola). This disease has affected farmers and crops in the following states, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Plateau, and Lagos. The question now is, what alterative do we have at the moment.

Not until this shortage, that people began to understand the importance of tomato to our menu. Not sure there is a substitute to tomato. The likely scenario would be to import to cover the existing gap. So far Nigeria spends about N80 billion nairn ($400 million) yearly on importation of tomatoes. With this tomato shortage, there seems to be no way out than importation. This will inturn put pressure on the scare foreign exchange, in addition to further increase in prices.

But the good news according to the Minister of Agriculture is that experts would commenced work immediately to combat this pest.