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Strange disease wither tomato yields and aggravates poverty
Panic has gripped farmers in the Tono and Vea Irrigation area of the Upper Eastern Region due to the failure of their lean season tomato crops. The region is one of the largest tomato growing areas in the country. The farmers lost nearly all their crops in the December-February season.
Aside their investments going out in smoke, the farmers are also scared by the fact that scientists at the Tamale-based Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) and the Irrigation Company of Upper Region (ICOUR) are still struggling to unravel the nature of the disease three years after it was first spotted in the area. ICOUR manages both the Tono and Vea irrigation projects.
“It took everyone by surprise,” managing director of the irrigation company, Alhaji M. Bukari told Public Agenda. The disease attacks the plants just before the tomato plants can flower and withers them living the fruits stunted, said the agricultural scientist.
The main farming season has just started and the farmers say they have no funds. Kojo Tedam, a father of three from Bonia said he sold two of his five cows for ?1.4 million and invested all in a one-acre plot of ICOUR irrigated land at Tono but picked less than 10 crates of tomatoes. In good seasons he picks about 10 crates everyday throughout the harvest season, he said.
“Now I don’t have anything. Money for food is even a problem. The commercial banks? They won’t give me anything because I don’t have a collateral,” he told Public Agenda.
Like Tedam, John Abass said he invested ?6 million he borrowed to invest in two acres at the Tono Irrigation site but does not intend to farm this season. Abass who now drives a cab in Navrongo said he does not have the funds besides he fears the disease could attack any crop he plants even though it has so far not afflicted other plants apart from tomatoes.
Abass said he picked about 100 crates of tomatoes during the 2002 tomato season but in the last season it was less than 10 crates. Bukari said the disease was first identified three years ago in few pockets of plots at Tono and Vea.
The people of the area depend solely on farming and they could plant other crops such as rice, soya beans, cowpea and millet. But they may not be able to afford it because most of the farmers do not qualify for bank loans.
Ordinarily, ICOUR could assist the farmers but the company is equally handicapped. The irrigation company offers tractor services as one of its core duties yet only five of its 12 tractors are working. ICOUR may also not be able to support all the 6,000 farmers it serviced in the past because several millions of cedis are locked up in unsold rice seeds it produced two years ago.
The irrigation company depends on the farmers for about 40 per cent of its budget through fees farmers pay for irrigated plots, tractor and other agricultural services. Bukari said the strange disease could be due to the unbridled use of foreign tomato seeds. Some of the seeds are imported from Spain, France, Italy and Egypt. No Ghanaian institution produces tomato seeds for the country’s tomato farmers, Bukari revealed.
The strange tomato disease has not yet affected Burkinabe farmers. And the scale the havoc had wrecked on their economy was driven home to the Ghanaian farmers during the November 25 Navrongo Central by-election. Dozens of trucks loaded with empty tomato crates were parked in the town. They are waiting for the local “loading boys” to accompany them to Burkina Faso to buy tomatoes. The boys, though, had gone to cast their votes.
Tomato farming offers employment to the large young unemployed population especially in the dry season when it is difficult to farm outside the irrigated plots.

Strange disease wither tomato yields and aggravates poverty
Panic has gripped farmers in the Tono and Vea Irrigation area of the Upper Eastern Region due to the failure of their lean season tomato crops. The region is one of the largest tomato growing areas in the country. The farmers lost nearly all their crops in the December-February season.
Aside their investments going out in smoke, the farmers are also scared by the fact that scientists at the Tamale-based Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) and the Irrigation Company of Upper Region (ICOUR) are still struggling to unravel the nature of the disease three years after it was first spotted in the area. ICOUR manages both the Tono and Vea irrigation projects.
“It took everyone by surprise,” managing director of the irrigation company, Alhaji M. Bukari told Public Agenda. The disease attacks the plants just before the tomato plants can flower and withers them living the fruits stunted, said the agricultural scientist.
The main farming season has just started and the farmers say they have no funds. Kojo Tedam, a father of three from Bonia said he sold two of his five cows for ?1.4 million and invested all in a one-acre plot of ICOUR irrigated land at Tono but picked less than 10 crates of tomatoes. In good seasons he picks about 10 crates everyday throughout the harvest season, he said.
“Now I don’t have anything. Money for food is even a problem. The commercial banks? They won’t give me anything because I don’t have a collateral,” he told Public Agenda.
Like Tedam, John Abass said he invested ?6 million he borrowed to invest in two acres at the Tono Irrigation site but does not intend to farm this season. Abass who now drives a cab in Navrongo said he does not have the funds besides he fears the disease could attack any crop he plants even though it has so far not afflicted other plants apart from tomatoes.
Abass said he picked about 100 crates of tomatoes during the 2002 tomato season but in the last season it was less than 10 crates. Bukari said the disease was first identified three years ago in few pockets of plots at Tono and Vea.
The people of the area depend solely on farming and they could plant other crops such as rice, soya beans, cowpea and millet. But they may not be able to afford it because most of the farmers do not qualify for bank loans.
Ordinarily, ICOUR could assist the farmers but the company is equally handicapped. The irrigation company offers tractor services as one of its core duties yet only five of its 12 tractors are working. ICOUR may also not be able to support all the 6,000 farmers it serviced in the past because several millions of cedis are locked up in unsold rice seeds it produced two years ago.
The irrigation company depends on the farmers for about 40 per cent of its budget through fees farmers pay for irrigated plots, tractor and other agricultural services. Bukari said the strange disease could be due to the unbridled use of foreign tomato seeds. Some of the seeds are imported from Spain, France, Italy and Egypt. No Ghanaian institution produces tomato seeds for the country’s tomato farmers, Bukari revealed.
The strange tomato disease has not yet affected Burkinabe farmers. And the scale the havoc had wrecked on their economy was driven home to the Ghanaian farmers during the November 25 Navrongo Central by-election. Dozens of trucks loaded with empty tomato crates were parked in the town. They are waiting for the local “loading boys” to accompany them to Burkina Faso to buy tomatoes. The boys, though, had gone to cast their votes.
Tomato farming offers employment to the large young unemployed population especially in the dry season when it is difficult to farm outside the irrigated plots.