Africa Happenings
Dangote Tomatoes Processing Limited a subsidiary of Dangote Farms has unveiled an $8 million greenhouse nursery in Kano to supply the best quality tomato seedlings to Nigerian farmers. The nursery uses the Pat Moose planting technology, the first of its kind in Nigeria. It has the capacity to process 350 million tonnes of hybrid tomato seedlings per season enabling the planting of 12000 hectares of tomato farm. The pat moose process takes 3 weeks before proceeding to the next stage reducing the whole process of growing tomatoes to just 3 months.
The setting of up this nursery means that the country is now on the trajectory of being self-sufficient in tomato production as well as exporting the surplus to the rest of the continent. Currently, Nigeria consumes 2.3 million tonnes of tomatoes annually. With this technology, it has the capacity to more than triple tomato production enabling the exportation to countries in the sub-region.
Furthermore, this nursery will produce the highest quality tomato seedling available meaning that the farmers can grow the highest yield tomatoes. Currently, the yields produced by Nigerian farmers are less than the global standard. As a result, farmers will be able to earn more income from selling higher volumes of harvests each season.
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