Tomato is an important irrigated, and to some extent rain-fed, vegetable produced by farmers in four of the eight AgroBIG target districts, namely North Achefer, North Mecha, Dera, and Bahir Dar Zuria.
Although tomato is one of Ethiopia’s export crops, it’s productivity is very low in all the Programme districts. The AgroBIG annual survey shows that about 0.08 ha of land is dedicated to tomatoes on average per household, and yields average 137 quintals per hectare (2020).
The value chain in the Programme area is short without value addition activity. Tomato is produced mainly as cash crop, and to some extent for fresh use by farmers. Tomatoes produced are collected either directly from farmers by traders (through brokers) or from local markets, and supplied to regional market centres.
Read about AgroBIG interventions in the tomato value chain:
Extract from the Tomato Value Chain Analysis (2018)
Links to News pieces:
- How Farmer Field Schools are improving the productivity of selected vegetables, including tomato: here