An assessment of tomato production practices among rural farmers in major tomato growing districts in Malawi

Abstract

Tomato is one of the most commonly grown vegetables in Malawi. However, considerable attention has not been given for its production and marketing aspects among smallholder farmers. Therefore, this study was conducted in six major tomato growing districts in Malawi with the objective of identifying production and marketing practices and constraints affecting tomato productivity. Semi structured questionnaires were administered to 404 respondents comprising 368 farmers and 36 input suppliers and data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that male dominated tomato farming in the study area. It further revealed that 27.2% had post primary school education, 65.5% attended primary school education and 7.3% had no formal education. The survey indicated that 95.9% of respondents grow tomatoes in an open field and very few use tunnel/greenhouses (4.1% of the respondents). The survey results identified four major production constraints: pests, diseases, marketing and input cost. Red spider mite and bacterial wilt were identified as major pest and disease, respectively. Regarding marketing of tomatoes, the major constraint is price fluctuations. Major problems faced by input suppliers included lack of capital (27.8% of respondents). These findings indicate urgent need to invest heavily in promotion of tomato production and marketing.

Farmer’s Knowledge Level towards Improved Tomato Cultivation Practices in Mokokchung District of Nagaland, India

“…Eventually, more than one-third of the tomato growers had high level of mass media exposure (42.50%), followed by medium (30.83%) and low (26.67%) level of mass media exposure. Similar studies were reported by Sangavi et al [2] and Eviness et al [3].…”

“…While, Eviness et al [3] revealed that tomato growers in Malawi were mostly male under the age of 31-41 years, married with primary level of education. Most of the farmers had agriculture related occupation with had 6-10 years of farming experience and earns an annual income of 100,000-500,000 MK.…”

Effect of Different Staking Methods on the Growth and yield of Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum) in the Rainforest Agro-ecological Zone

“…Diseased fruits were high in unstaked. Staking prevents infestation of diseases and rotting of fruits thereby increasing marketable yield of tomatoes (Nyalugwe, 2022). Interms of number of leaves and number of branches, crops that were staked mainly : platform staking and vertical staking performed better than control and these may be attributed to the exposure given to them to attract sunlight which is necessary for photosynthesis (Hossain et al, 2023).…”

“…It is grown in most part of the World for vegetable to meet the mineral and vitamins requirement of humans (Hossain et al, 2023;Idikut, et al, 2009). Apart from contributing to food security and supplementary household income for small and medium scale farmers, tomato has currently strong consumer demand because of its wide acceptable nutritional value as source of vitamins and minerals especially vitamin C as well as industrial raw materials (Nyalugwe et al, 2022). According to Food and Agricultural Organization Statistics, estimated total world production for tomato in 2017 was 182,301,395 metric tonnes.…”