State of the art greenhouse to boost tomato export market

"With tomatoes, the international market buyers are very specific. They not only look at the physical look of the tomatoes, but they also go into the detail of the nutrients it carries because there are specific nutrients they must have", explains Faluku Mwondha, a horticulture expert.

He explains that as technology advances, there is a state-of-art in greenhouse, that has a Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) to attain precision crop production.

According to Mwondha, tomatoes work well with a PH of 6-7, at a temperature of 21-27, with certain humidity and percentage of carbon dioxide. (All photos by Herbert Musoke)

The system also uses a drip hydroponic system replacing the water splash system that was using a lot of water-saving up to 90%. It also has a nutrition supplying machine called Aqua-M Shinhan A-Tech.

"This machine can support both greenhouse and open field farming you only need nutrient tanks to mix in the water. Remember tomatoes don't eat soil, they only need the nutrients and that's what is provided in the water and they use the plant media to hold the tomato roots", he explains.

Many tomatoe farmers in Uganda are fighting soil-borne diseases like bacteria wilt, sesaliam wilt and root nematodes.

"Although farmers are planting relatively tolerant varieties, they still make losses", he says.

Full control of growing conditions

The system gives the farmer full control of crop growing conditions for optimal production. If you are a commercial farmer and thinking of exporting, this is the only way to go.

"Without this system, it is practically impossible to export tomatoes from Uganda because you cannot control the quality and you can't control the residues of the chemicals used to spray", he says.

According to Mwondha, tomatoes work well with a PH of 6-7, at a temperature of 21-27, with certain humidity and percentage of carbon dioxide. With control of the surrounding conditions, u can really produce tomatoes.

"Remember during rainy season, tomatoes can have folio diseases and will make poet-harvest hard because they will rot easily. Then during the high temperatures, flowers will drop off. Tomatoes work well in a controlled environment. If we really think of exporting, we must have control of production", he says.

Harvest

Mwondha says that each greenhouse can accommodate 700 plants. He advises that one needs to choose the best variety like Nemo netta F1 which commands a high price but its rear among Ugandan farmers because it can't be grown in an open field as it is so susceptible to diseases.

A kilogram goes for between shs2, 500 and shs4, 000 on the local market with each tomato weighing between 150gms and 250gms.

Mwondha explaining how the Aqua-M machine works.

"A single harvest period, we harvest up to 2tons of tomatoes since our hydroponics tomato varieties have a productive span of 8 months to a year.  

The cost

Mwondha says that the system costs about shs200m but it supports the growth of different crops in the field and greenhouses.

"It can only be economical if you are going to use it for a large-scale commercial production but for medium farmers, we advise them to use greenhouses; sterilize the soil and use buckets to kill the soil-borne diseases. It can be economical because we can construct for you one with wood at about shs8-10m and the metallic can cost about shs15m", he says.

He, however, says that everyone can start from where they are. "When a farmer comes here for training, and advise them on what to do. We encourage them to start small and then graduate to this level because at this level you should be producing for export of contract because if you have a big market to supply you need to be in control of production.

Header Photo Caption: Mwondha harvesting tomatoes from the greenhouse. (All Photos by Herbert Musoke)

Source: Bukedde

Source: Bukedde