Capacity building of tomato farmers in Ghana: The case of IPM package.
M. K. KWABENA OSEI (1), S. A. Miller (2), R. L. Gilbertson (3). (1) CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Kumasi, Ghana; (2) Ohio State University, Ohio, OH, U.S.A.; (3) UC Davis, California, Davis, CA, U.S.A.
Tomato is sensitive to pest pressure and is therefore subjected to intensive application of synthetic pesticides some of which are toxic compounds. An integrated pest management (IPM) strategy through Farmer field Schools were put in place to teach farmers on how to minimize pest pressure, frequency and rate of pesticides application to protect both the environment and man in three regions of Ghana. Tomato varieties; Shasta, Heinz, OP-149, OP-155 and a local were used. Fields were designated as IPM and Farmer’ beds to monitor differences in crop performance in the different farming systems. Tomato seedlings were planted in RCBD with five replications. Significant differences were observed among the varieties used across the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions in plant height, number of fruit per plant, fruit weight, number of plants infested with aphids and number of dropped fruits. There were however, no significant differences in fruit borers per plot, number of fruit dropped among the varieties in the Upper East region. Key words: tomato, pest pressure, IPM, varieties, school
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