Dangote Tomato Processing Company in Kadawa, Kano State says it has established a Green House for massive production of tomato seeds which it will distribute to tomato farmers.
The Managing Director of the company, Alhaji Abdulkarim Kaita disclosed this in Kano on Wednesday.
He said the green house which is the largest in Africa, was established to provide tomato growers with high yield tomato seeds in the country.
“We shall provide tomato farmers with high yield seeds which will enable them to produce a minimum of 40 tons per hectare instead of the 10 tons they used to produce per hectare,” he said.
On production at the company, Kaita said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had supported 10, 000 tomato farmers under the anchor borrower programme to produce the commodity for sale to the company.
He said the inclusion of tomato farmers in the Anchor Borrower programme would boost tomato production in all the tomato producing states in the country.
“With the establishment of the largest green house in Africa and the inclusion of tomato growers in the anchor borrower programme, we expect massive production of the commodity this dry season farming,” he said.
He said the company would resume operation in October as farmers start producing the commodity against the dry season.
Kaita called on farmers to make the best use of the support provided them by the Federal Government through the CBN to boost the production of tomato in the country.
On a recent media story that the company had been shut, the Managing Director debunked the claim, saying all over the world tomato production is known to be seasonal.
“I want to use this opportunity to debunk the story which claimed the company had been closed.
“The company is not closed because it is known all over the world that tomato is a seasonal commodity,” Kaita said.
