Effect of late blight disease on the production of tomatoes in Budondo sub county, Jinja district

Abstract

Tomato is the fastest growing major crop in Budondo Sub County with important economic impact on many resource-poor farming families. Many factors limit production and profitability, with hundreds of millions of dollars spent yearly on fungicides alone, but little is known about direct losses, with experts agreeing that they are variable and frequently significant. Late blight is most severe in the lower areas of the sub county where weather conditions are favorable for disease. Variable topography and continuous production of tomato and other late blight hosts, including tomatoes make prediction of disease initiation or severity difficult. New and potentially more aggressive pathogen populations have been introduced into Budondo Sub County and both mating types are present in a number of Budondo villages. There is not yet clear evidence for the role of sexual recombination or oospores in nature in Budondo, nor has it been established that new populations have made disease management more difficult. However, this can probably be inferred from what has happened in other sub counties. The study was conducted on the effect of late blight disease on the production of tomatoes in Budondo sub-county, Jinja district. The study design was a cross sectional research design and a sample size of 115 respondents was adopted using purposive sampling technique. Data was collected using questionnaire that was designed for both farmers and stakeholders and presented in form of frequency tables and charts both pie charts and graphs The findings revealed that there are clear effects of late blight disease on the production of tomatoes. However, effects of late blight disease on the production of tomatoes included yield losses, low quality of tomato products, inhibits tomato growth, and leads to price fluctuation of tomatoes. It was concluded that, efficient late blight management in a near future can only be achieved with effective farmers‟ education as a foundation.