It was a sigh of relief for tomato farmers from Western Kenya and particularly Sirisia Constituency in Bungoma County as Seedco launched a new tomato variety.
For long, bacterial wilt had troubled tomato farmers, whose effort, investment and sweat bore no fruit. As a result, they opted out of tomato farming.
But now with the launch of Bareto F1 by Seedco, farmers are very excited that they will once again be able to reap big from tomato farming. The launch that took place in Katome junction in Lwakhakha, saw farmers drawn from Sirisia, Teso North and neighboring Uganda tour the farm of Wilson Maina for first hand experience of how amazing Bareto F1 is performing.
Juma Masika the Seedco Field Officer in-charge of Western region disclosed that the new tomato variety is highly resistant to bacterial wilt, nematodes and tomato yellow leaf curl virus.
This was reaffirmed by Wilson Maina on whose farm Seedco put a demo farm for Bareto F1. He told farmers present that not a single day did he witness bacterial wilt attack his crop. He disclosed that the new variety had given him a bumper harvest. Maina urged farmers to embrace the new variety as it has been tested and proved to be suitable for their soil.
Bareto F1 takes 70-75 days to mature from transplant, has strong vines, impressive yields, good leaf coverage and is adaptive to a wide range of growing conditions.
Besides tomatoes, farmers were also taken through the long and short season seed varieties. He urged farmers to take advantage of the available rain to plant Duma 43, Simba 61 and Sungura 301 that take 75 days to mature.
This event was also graced by representatives from OCP and Bayer East Africa.
The OCP Regional Sales Manager Juliet Mutali urged farmers to embrace NPSB fertilizer from OCP Africa. She said NPSB is a compound fertilizer as it is increasingly vital due to declining soil sulphur and boron levels in the farms. Sulphur is an essential micronutrient that is key for protein and chlorophyll synthesis and nitrogen fixation as boron supports formation and strengthening of plant cells which is critical for growth.
Meanwhile, Conrad Wekesa from Bayer East Africa in charge of seed and chemical demo farms called on farmers to always use appropriate chemicals to control pests and diseases.
Farmers also bagged for themselves several goodies and pledged full return to tomato farming and use of short season seed variety.
