CHAPTER ONE

                                                                                                                        INTRODUCTION

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L., 2n=24), is a natural red edible fruit which has its place in the Solanum family. It is one of the most adaptable crops in terms of agricultural significance and the third most important crop family, topped only by grasses and legumes. It is the most valuable in terms of vegetable crops (Van der Hoeven et al. 2002) and a food security crop in Ghana (Horna et al., 2007). The Tomato fruits are eaten fresh or cooked. They are added to sauces and soups as flavouring. In addition, they are processed into different forms such as candies, dried tomato fruits, powdered, paste, puree, ketchup and canned tomato fruits which are also equally important economically. As a matter of fact, it forms part of the food consumed in Ghana and this is clear in the fact that, a lot of Ghanaian dishes have tomatoes as a basic ingredient (Tambo and Gbemu, 2010).Tomato provides a rich supply of folate and with phytonutrients, the most abundant in tomatoes are the carotenoids, lycopene being the most well-known, followed by beta-carotene and gamma-carotene, photogene as well as several minor carotenoids (Beecher, 2009).Tomato is produced all over the country but the leading producing areas are located in the Northern regions (Horna et al., 2007). It is also an equally important cash crop in the outskirts of urban areas in the forest zone. A booming, money-making tomato production also takes place in the Greater Accra area and in the Akumadan and Wenchi districts in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions, respectively (Obeng-Ofori et al., 2007).

            PROBLEM STATEMENT

In Ghana, the focus and attention of the several interested participants in the tomato industry has routinely been on better production capacities of farmers leading to increased yields in order to provide for the growing population, with relatively less emphasis on fruit quality and

shelf life. According to Robinson and Kolavalli, (2010), tomato production seems to be falling since 2000. Unlike other countries, the tomato sector in Ghana has failed to reach its potential, in terms of increased yields, ability to reduce postharvest losses and in terms of improving the livelihoods of the many households involved in tomato production (Robinson and Kolavalli 2010).Agreeing to these authors, farmers do not only refuse to grow the right quality but also most importantly, they cannot produce the right quantity and quality to meet the demands of the tomato market. Robinson and Kolavalli (2010) also stated that average yields for tomatoes in Ghana are declining, typically, less than ten tonnes per hectare and that, due to production seasonality, high perishability, and competition from imports, some farmers are unable to sell their tomatoes, which are left to rot in their fields. The increase in postharvest losses, low yields, pooled with the high demand for tomatoes have given rise to the importation of fresh tomatoes and processed tomato products into the country (Horna et al., 2007).

In Ghana, loss of fresh fruits is projected to be about 20-50 percent (MOFA, 2010). In addition, consumers’ interest in the quality of tomato fruit products have also increased tremendously. Quality is an all-embracing term and it includes physical properties (size, shape, color, and absence of defects and decay, firmness, texture), flavor (sugar, acids, and aroma volatiles) and health-related compounds (desired compounds such as minerals, vitamins, and carotenoids as well as undesired compounds such as heavy metals, pesticides and nitrates) (Rouphael et al., 2010).Since consumers demand for more varieties of higher quality and longer shelf life, strategies committed to increasing fruit quality and longer shelf life continue to be of great interest. (Dorais et al., 2001; Gruda, 2005)

By the same token, the tomato market industry (fresh market, the fresh cut market and the food industry) have transformed in the sense that, the demand for products with better quality traits such as flavour, taste, texture, firmness and longer shelf life are sought after. This has

led to the adaptation of breeding goals towards increased quality traits which are pooled together with high yield and extended shelf life. Yet, these breeding goals meant for increasing tomato fruit quality and shelf life are virtually slow. More or less breeders have had some amount of feats increasing the quality of fruits with extended shelf life without losing other production traits due to the high variability that exist in the solanum group, to which tomatoes is an important affiliate (Caliman et al., 2010). Similarly, the use of plant modification tools to obtain genetically modified tomato plants that are high yielding with improved quality and extended shelf life, gives rise to socio-economic issues, as a result of the fact that, consumers are not willing to accept the use of genetically modified organisms in food production systems. An integrated approach to enhance fruit quality, increased productivity with extended shelf life is very important, for a doable and sustainable tomato production, particularly, in Ghana.