Tomato In Danger

Tuta absoluta has been the  dread of tomato farmers in many countries in Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa for some time now. Up until a few months ago, its presence in Ethiopia was only suspected and unconfirmed. Now it is official.

In Meki Town, Oromia, Regional State 130kms from Addis Abeba, already close to 345ha of tomato farms have been affected by the caterpillar of this infamous moth and farmers are spending tens of thousands of Birr on chemicals, in what appears to be a losing battle, likely to leave a big mark on the tomato market.

Neighbouring Sudan has had a number of locations affected by this moth. And, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) believes that the leaf mining moth may have crossed over from there to Ethiopia, via Tigray, seven months ago.

The Ministry received an alert from Pest.net at that time, according to Hiwot Lema, a senior expert at the Animals & Plants Health and Quality Control directorate at the MoA. The information, it seems, was simply shelved.

Meki and Ziway supply vegetables to markets in Addis Abeba, Gonder, Bahr Dar, Moyale, Jima, Mekele, Harar and Dire Dawa.

As Fortune visited the farmlands around Meki, over the past week, tomato farms in four of the 17 Kebeles in town were completely dried and wasted, with their maturing fruits completely penetrated by the larvae of the moth.

Tomato farms in Raya and Alamata, in the Tigray Region State; Awash, Central Shewa, and Eastern Shewa, including Meki and Ziway, and all through the Oromia Regional State, are highly affected by this moth. Tigray and Oromia are the regions most affected by the Tuta Absoluta, according to Hiwot.

Ethiopia produced 817,380ql of tomatoes, in 2011/12, up from 556,351ql a year before. Oromia accounted for the lion’s share of this producti0n, with 562,790 ql. Amhara came in second, with 96,072 ql. Whilst the Southern and Tigray regional sates produced 63,756ql and  41,817 ql, respectively.

Meki and Ziway have produced 10pc of Oromia’s total produce throughout the year, with 890ha of land dedicated to tomato growing, across the two towns.

Tuta Absoluta has a strong preference for tomatoes, according to internet sources, but also goes for egg plants, sweet peppers, potatoes, cabbage, beans, some green house flowers, leaves of big trees and weeds. It lays its egg on plant parts that are found above the ground. Beginning at the leaves, the larva (caterpillar) goes through the flowers, fruits and stems, until it changes into pupa and then fully matures into an adult, before flying to another tomato plant within two weeks, according to Wolde Ibsa, Irrigation Department head at the Dugda Woreda Agriculture Bureau, where Meki is found.

The infected tomato very quickly becomes red and rots from within. Some even look healthy on the outside, but shrink in size and harden, change colour to greenish black and fall fast from the stem.

Out of the damaged farmland, 200ha is occupied by large scale farmers who have leased 10 to 40ha of land from local farmers. The remainder is occupied by the Meki Batu Cooperative Union, whose member farmers have between 0.25ha (known as a kert) and five hectares of land.

The Union’s 56 member associations have a total 701ha dedicated to the growing of  tomato, potato, maize, onion, chilli and cabbage; out of this, 150ha was dedicated to tomato, all of which has been lost to the invasive moth, according to Ture Kasim, general manager of the Union.

The farmers in the kebeles have been producing 300 to 750ql of tomato from one hectare, according to the seed type they use. Some of them use locally approved seeds, while the large scale farmers get their supplies, which can yield up to 1200 ql, from Israel.

The average yield of tomato from a hectare of land, in 2011/12, was 112ql in Ethiopia, an  improvement of 7.6pc from the previous year.

In Meki, only 10ha have been saved from the havoc wreaked by the moth, by farmers who were able to access the Coragen 200 SC and Tracer chemicals from flower farmers in Koka, according to Wolde.

Some of the large scale farmers are changing their farms to maize, while others are simply wondering around their land in disbelief.

“Before 15 days, the farmland was beautiful with ripening fruits. Now, it has all conquered by the insect, since we did not have the right chemicals at hand when the moth migrated from neighbouring farms,” said Jango Korma, who says he has lost three hectares of tomatoes at Meki, after spending 120,000 Br on chemicals.

The damage is what has sent a quake through the farmers, giving up their last hopes of curing the farms using chemicals.

“I have used over eight types of chemicals to cure it, but only two – Coragen 200 SC and Tracer – were successful, but they are not available on the market. Everybody brings a chemical and say this is the right one.  I even bought a litre of chemical for 25,000 Br and other farmers paid up to 60,000 Br, but no change,” said Desta Bayisa, owner of Desta Farm plc, in the Bekele Girisa kebele – one of the four kebeles where the moth was first seen.

Gain, Agrolight, Nimbicidene, Parante, Dizole, Conazol, Karate, Protech, Proclaim, Abamectin, Malatine and Dirgnon are some of the chemicals the farmers could name from those they have used so far, with little success.

“We made our farms guinea pigs for whatever chemical the traders brought to us, in order to save the tomatoes. Even we put the larva in those chemicals, but it swims inside,” Desta said.

He claims to have spent 1.2 million Br to save the tomato farm on 30ha of land, which is more than twice his usual chemical expense, before the Tuta Absoluta emerged.

A litre of either Coragen 200 SC, which kills the moth, or Tracer, which kills the caterpillar, is used for five hectares, and the spray has to be repeated every four to five days, Desta says.

There are also farmers who used katikala, a local liquor, to save their farms. The agriculture office at the Wereda even advised them to use sugar with Nimbecidine – both to no effect.

The two chemicals that worked, Coragen 200 SC and Tracer, are not available on the market, because the importer company only supplies it to flower farmers.

Isolated use of these chemicals does not help much, according to Desta, because the moth can still fly over from neighbouring farms.  He claims that some companies and traders have changed the labels of other chemicals to look like Tracer, which they then sold onto farmers at high prices.

“We even bought a 200g chemical for 2,500 Br,” he said.  “We have waited two months for the two chemicals.”

The two chemicals are sold for 6,000 Br a litre; some importers, that did not wish to be identified, said that they could not import the chemicals in enough quantity, because of a foreign currency shortage.

Desta says that he paid 60,000 Br, two weeks ago, to a company that imports Coragen 200 SC and Tracer.

Desta visited the Prime Minister’s office, on May 27, 2013, when the agriculture officials failed to turn up – despite reports of 280ha of land having been damaged by the moth, two months ago – at the Eastern Shewa Agriculture Bureau.

The people he met at the office, he claimed, had no information at all about the Tuta Absoluta.

“They had to Google it in front of me. The government has done nothing to tackle the problem. No agriculture extension workers, indeed no one at all, has come to  see our farm,” he said.

Wolde, from the Dugda Wereda Agriculture Office says that there are 79 agricultural extension workers in Meki.

With the tomato dying, Desta and Biyo have cut their labour force down, from 50 and 100 workers, respectively, to just 10 each.

“I am afraid that the tomato is finished now. Unless the government gets involved and helps to import the best chemicals, the moth will continue migrating to other crops. This is not a problem just for us farmers, but also for the market and government. What are they doing?” he exclaimed.

“Last year, the product was in excess, and a kilo was sold for 60 cents; this year it is gone. Why does the government speak only when the price increases?” questioned Biyo.

Desta is expecting no harvest this season, and he is afraid of what the future holds without the right chemicals. He also fears that using so many different types of chemicals might affect the quality of the soil.

The MoA, which have been aware of the moth since September 2012, have only just finalised a survey, two months ago, according to Hiwot.

“Agricultural bureaus at the Wereda levels have not sent us the reports on these areas and we had to send our own experts there,” she added.

The Dugda Wereda office, however, claims that the Zonal Bureau had been informed about the damage to 280ha of land, but is yet to give a response, according to Wolde.

“We are so busy doing researches and reports on the case, but we have no capacity to act,” Hiwot said.

The Melkasa Agricultural Research Centre is doing a research on 1.5ha of land, where Ethio Veg Fruits Plc is growing tomatoes, on the outskirts of Koka Town, 23km from Meki. It is trying to find a sustainable way of killing the moth.

“The moth has already reached Western Oromia now and farmers around there are calling us to ask how to save their farms,” said Biyo.

The Ministry will give extensive trainings to the farmers, control the illegal chemical sellers and contact countries, like Spain, familiar with the moth, after the research is over, says Hiwot.

The damage to the farms in Meki, Ziway, Koka, Awash and other Tigray and Oromia regional areas has had an immediate impact on the tomato market.

The price of a kilo of tomatoes went up to 20 Br in Meki town, compared to the 16.50 Br it was up until June 10, 2013, and the 4.5 Br it had been three months previously, according to Fikadu Geda, the Trade and Market Development Office head of the town.

“Before three months, 150 to 200 Isuzus used to take tomatoes from the town, every single day,” she claimed.

Tomato wholesalers at the vegetable market in Piazza (Atekilt Tera) have been purchasing the fruit from supplier who bring it largely from Meki and Ziway, as well as from – Welsiso, Debre Zeit, Awash and Koka.

“There have been no tomatoes coming to the market for the past three weeks. We get up at four in the morning and fight to get to the two or three Isuzus that come to the city with the tomato. We only have seven boxes of tomato now,” said Tarekegn Tesema, a worker at a tomato store, in Atekilt Tera, on Friday.

Now more and more of the tomatoes coming to Atekilt Tera originate from Weliso and Debre Zeit – areas still safe from the moth, which is devastating the farms in Meki and Ziway.

Tarekegn was selling a kilo of good quality tomato for 18 Br; the retailers near him sell the same for 20 Br. Tarekegn’s price, two weeks ago, was just 12 Br.

Larvae infected tomatoes have already made it to the market in Addis Abeba and other parts of the country, including the Somali Regional State. In Addis Abeba, these bad tomatoes are selling for 10 to 15 Br, and the MoA does not yet know if there is any harm to consumers.

 


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