No abstract

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is a popular and important crop as it is consumed worldwide. It serves as a source of nutrients such as vitamins A and C. In Ghana, tomato production contributes to agricultural GDP, employment creation and foreign exchange earnings. However, tomato production is faced with challenges that hamper productivity. This has been attributed mainly to attacks by pests such as fruit borers. Therefore, this study was conducted to ascertain the characteristics of tomato farmers in Sekyere Kumawu and Asante Akim North districts in Ghana and their knowledge on fruit borers. Structured questionnaires were administered to gather data from sixty respondents who were sampled through a multistage sampling technique. Results from the survey showed male dominance in commercial tomato production in both districts with an average age of 43 years, which falls within the active working age group. Majority of the farmers indicated that they were into tomato production for commercial purposes, and practice sole cropping. More than 60% of the farmers revealed the fruit borer as a major pest causing yield losses of about 27% on average on their farms. Moreover, it was found that majority of the respondents control the fruit borer with synthetic chemicals.

This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of synthetic insecticides in managing Helicoverpa armigera Mill in tomato production. The experiment was conducted during the major and minor tomato growing seasons at the Sekyere Kumawu and Asante Akim North districts in Ghana. The experimental design was a 3 x 5 factorial randomized complete block with four replications. Four insect pest control regimes were evaluated for their effectiveness in controlling the tomato fruit borer. Three tomato varieties were used in this experiment. The results showed that, significantly, higher marketable fruit yields were obtained on the sprayed plots than the control plots. In general, the variety “pectomec” suffered the highest yield loss on the water sprayed field, followed by UC 82 and lastly, power rhino, although all the varieties suffered losses greater than 50%. This shows that none of the varieties used for this study is completely resistant to Helicoverpa armigera. Yields were generally higher in the major season (March-July) than in the minor season (September-December) for pectomec and power rhino. The best insecticides are Oxymatrin (2.4%), Lambda-cyhalothrin (2.5%) and Dimethoate (400g/l) +Cypermethrin (36g/l) in descending order. Contrarily, UC 82 had low yields in the major season than in the minor season. The study recommends that Helicoverpa armigera Mill should be controlled with pesticides to improve yields of tomato.