Nigeria: Despite drop in tomato, pepper prices, pests still lurk around

Nigeria is experiencing one of the worst tomato and pepper shortage in history, with prices staying high for several months. With the development, experts have cautioned that if the federal government does not address the problem with urgency, it will last beyond the 2024 wet season. In the last two months, tomato became more scarce across the country, making the vegetable extremely expensive and nearly out of the reach of most Nigerians. A basket of tomato reached N120,000 at the beginning of June, 2024, which stakeholders said had never happened. The same basket was sold at between N5,000 and N7,000 in 2021. However, many consumers were a little bit relieved that the price of tomato has reduced from the N120,000 per basket to roughly between N60,000 and N68,000 last week. However, despite the declining price, production is plagued by persistent problems. Nigeria’s tomato production increased from 190,000 tonnes in 1973 to about 3.68 million tonnes in 2022, with an average annual ...