We can accommodate over 40,000 tomatofarmers – Dangote

The chairman of Dangote Farms, Alhaji Sani Dangote, has said the Dangote Tomato factory in Kano can take supply from over 40,000 tomato farmers regularly. He said this would, however, depend on regulations put in place to protect the local factories from the importation of tomato concentrate, which he said, if not checked would affect local production of tomato paste. He said in Abuja that the factory, which has capacity to produce 1200 tons per day, has already sucked away so much from the
farmers, making the factory to be producing at minimum level. Dangote observed that farmers are currently producing at 10,000 metric tons per hectare, which he said is very low compared to what is obtainable in other countries but said if the capacity of local farmers was built, they can perform better. “We have brought seedlings from international company, which has demonstrated and found out that using manual operation, they can get 40,000 metric tons per hectare and that means that the hectare they were getting 10,000 tons from can now give them 40,000 tons. If that can be encouraged, where every farmer can get good seedling, good fertiliser, good input value and with improve agro practices, we belief we can get more than what we need from them,’’ he said. He said if his company can cater for over 40,000 tomato farmers, who can produce within three months, then the result of President Buhari’s commitment on agriculture can be fast feasible on tomato farming.