30 hectares of Tomato gardens in Bawku West destroyed

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By Jerry Azanduna, GNA

Teshie (UE) Jan. 20, GNA – About 30 hectares of
Tomato gardens in parts of the Bawku West District in the Upper East Region,
have been destroyed by the bacteria disease,‘Ralstonia Solanacearum’.

The disease, was identified by the Savannah
Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) at Manga in the Bawku Municipality
causes wilting within a short time of infection and destroyed only tomato farms
at Teshie, Zebilla and other vegetable farming communities in district.

Farmers at the Teshie and Soogo valleys
spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Teshie and complained about the
difficulty in accessing certified seed varieties, forcing them to use the old
varieties that were susceptible to diseases.

Mr Alaldago Ayadago, a physically challenged
farmer told the GNA that, the disease which appeared strange to them, destroyed
all the tomato crops on his farm, taking away his livelihood and putting him in
debt.

“For the past 15 years that I have been
farming, I have never experienced such a strange disease in this area, it
spreads very fast and destroyed my farm within a day, I noticed some signs of
wilting one day and the following morning all the crops had dried up”, he said.

Mr Ayadago appealed to the Ministry of Food
and Agriculture (MOFA) to help the affected farmers.

Mr Elias Atimberi, the District Director of
MOFA, confirmed the destruction of the gardens in an interview with the GNA at
Zebilla and said farmers in the Teshie community which was most affected, were
advised to stop cultivating tomatoes for sometime and diversify or practise
crop rotation, while a treatment regimen was used to treat the bacteria, to
avoid frequent attacks.

He explained that it was not a strange
disease and could be controlled by crop rotation as the bacteria might die off
or lose its potency if it did not get the tomato plant to infect after a few
years.

Mr Atimberi urged farmers to adopt the
cultivation of certified and improved seeds that could withstand diseases and
harsh weather conditions, to avoid the reoccurrence of crop loss.

Other districts near the Bawku West district
have not registered any kind of crop infection so far.

Mr Joseph Walier Beni, the Binduri District
Director of Agriculture told the GNA that his district had so far not recorded
such cases, but the Directorate was working closely with farmers and sensitised
them on the various diseases of vegetables and the need to report any incidence
of abnormality on their farms.

Statistics indicated that Ghana spent so
much money to import tomato paste annually due partly to unavailability of
improved seeds for commercial cultivation of tomatoes, he said and urged
stakeholders to address the issue by making certified and improved seeds of
vegetables available to farmers.

GNA