No abstract

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) production contributes to food and nutrition security, and a lucrative business for many stakeholders. Major stakeholders in the tomato food value chain (TFVC) include farmers, middlemen, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers. Farmers contribute the highest in value addition of tomato but earn the lowest profit (8.8%) compared to retailers (53.0%) with the highest, while middlemen and wholesalers earn 19.2% and 19.9%, respectively. This review is aimed at improving TFVC in Fako Division, South West Region of Cameroon, by evaluating the causes of tomato postharvest losses (PHL) and proposing suitable innovative solutions and policies adapted from existing strategies across the globe. Smallholder farmers incur a lot of PHL of tomato due to mechanical injury from the use of raffia made baskets, overfilled basket, poor transportation and logistics facilities, and harvest maturity index. Perforated plastic crates could be used to reduce losses. The government of Cameroon needs to provide a legal framework on tomato marketing to help regulate the actions of the various actors in order to redistribute profit as per the value added by each actor. Management of PHL is a collective effort of all stakeholders working together to provide high quality and quantity of tomato fruits.

Genesis of fire is tied to the origin of plants, and has been a closed companion to human for land preparation, harvesting and hunting. Fire is caused by natural phenomena and human activities which can either be deliberate or accidental. In the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), smallholder farmers are the breadbasket of the economy. In Banga Bakundu, farmers practiced slash and burn method of land preparation for the production of annual and perennial crops for home consumption and sales. This review was aimed at identifying the causes of fire and its consequences in the agricultural sectors and propose solutions to abate the disaster of fire so as to promote sustainable agricultural system in the study area, developing countries and the world at large. Small-scale farmers need relatively enough individuals in the farmland before deliberate burning and should precede with the creation of fire breaks at the edges of the farmland. Deep containers are good for holding charcoal during brooding and can prevent fire outbreak from charcoal spark. Meanwhile, burning is responsible for several premature deaths, psychological stressors and also causes several health complications including cancer, cardiovascular diseases etc. The government of Cameroon needs to intensify sensitization on the negative externalities of bush burning to the environment and offering of health assistance to farming communities.

This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. Author CN designed the study, prepared organic input, processed data, performed statistics, literature searches and wrote the first manuscript draft. Authors CBT and CAN established and managed the field trial and organic input, collected data and performed literature searches. Authors JNO and TEN coordinated data collection and processing and performed literature searches. Authors PMM and RNN coordinated field site and data management and performed literature searches. Author AST coordinated the experimentation and manuscript preparation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.