By Amos Tauna
Kaduna, (Nigeria)– A Kaduna based Non Governmental Organization, Zamani Foundation, has trained 39 farmers and entrepreneurs on best practices in the handling and production of tomatoes.
This is part of the NGO’s economic empowerment and development projects toward reducing the over 45% wastage in tomatoes production in Nigeria annually and conserve about 360 million dollars spent on the importation.
The Chief Executive Officer of the NGO, Talatu Zamani-Henry, told the participants that with the abundant natural resources in the country, Nigeria has all it takes to feed herself and generate surplus agricultural product for export.
She lamented that despite Nigeria was the leading producer of tomato in Africa, she remained the largest importer of tomato paste in the world due to her inability to convert excess production to alternative products like tomato paste or tomato juice.
Presenting an overview of the training, she explained that the Kaduna training was a step down from the Training of Master Trainers’ in Kano and a similar event one earlier held in Kaduna State.
 Participants were introduced to Hygiene and food safety, pack house operations and production controls as well as the use of plastic crates for fresh produce distribution and packing house operations, among others.
Practicals were also carried out in the use of market intelligence in cooperative supply chain, cooperative bylaws, formations and conflict resolutions.
Africa Prime News reports that the training also featured an experiment on how to set up tomato farming with agricultural value chain and bylaws as well as how they would employ the best practices in carrying out their activities.
