Tomatoes and Orchard Producers Association of Nigeria (TOFAN) says it will train no fewer than 46,500 farmers in 20 states to scale up tomato production in the country.
The President of the association, Bola Oyeleke who said this in an interview on Tuesday in Abuja, noted that the training would hold from January 28, and end in March.
Oyeleke listed the states as Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Abuja, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kano, Gombe, Taraba, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Enugu, Imo, Cross River, Akwa-Ibom, Delta and Borno.
He specifically noted that no fewer than 2,000 farmers would be trained in Lagos; Oyo 3,000; Ogun 3,000; Osun 2,000; Ondo 2,500; Abuja 1,000; Kaduna 2,500; Sokoto 5,000; Kano 4,000; Gombe 3,000 and Taraba 2,000.
Others are Kebbi 3,500, Kogi 2,000; Kwara 1,500; Enugu 1,000; Imo 1,000; Calabar 2,000; Uyo 2,000; Delta 2,000 and Borno 1,500.
“This year we will be embarking more on training farmers on good agronomy practice to plant tomatoes and other vegetables in large scale and we want other farmers, stakeholders and government to take part in the training.
“Our main target and objective this year is to make sure that farmers will be able to produce 30 tonnes to 40 tonnes of tomatoes per hectare.
“Through the training we can scale up tomato production, meet the consumption rate of the populace and as well boost the income of the farmers,” Oyeleke noted.
