CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of the Study
Tomato comes from the kingdom Plantae, family Solanacaea and the genus, Solanium. Its botanical name is Lycopersicon esculentum.The word “tomato” may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit that it bears. Tomato originated in America and was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown worldwide.The tomato is consumed in diverse ways, including raw, as an ingredient in many dishes and sauces, and in drinks. While it is botanically a fruit, it is considered a vegetable for culinary purposes. The fruit is rich in lycopene which may have beneficial health effects. The tomato belongs to the nightshade family. The plants typically grow to 1–3 meters (3–10 ft) in height and have a weak stem that often sprawls over the ground and vines over other plants. It is a perennial in its native habitat, although often grown outdoors in temperate climates as an annual. An average common tomato weighs 102–105 grams (Meseret, Ali and Kassahun, 2012).
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is the most common vegetable crop in all areas of tropical countries in the world and is available throughout the year. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most highly consumed vegetable crops in the world. Brazil ranks eighth in the worldwide ranking for tomatoproduction. According to Babalola, Makinde, Omonona, and Oyekanmi (2010), Nigeria ranks second to Egypt in Africa and 13th globally in tomato production. Tomato fruit is of high economic value. Nutritionally, tomato fruit contains lycopene, a flavonoid antioxidant together with carotenoids which protect the body cells and other structures in the human body (Babalola et al, 2010).
Tomato has been in cultivation in Nigeria for a very long time. It is an important component of the daily diet, consumed both fresh and in paste form. There are many vegetable fruits recognized in Nigeria, but, Tomato, as a vegetable fruit is a major food component, an ingredient utilized by every house hold and constitutes the national food security programme. The record confirmed that Nigeria produces approximately 1.8 million metric tons fresh fruits for domestic consumption, with national demand of about 2-3 million metric tons annually with demand gap of about 500,000metric tons (Rezvani, Feizi and Mondani, 2011).Tomato is an important condiment in daily diets, consumed both fresh and in paste form and a very cheap source of vitamins A, C, E and minerals which protect the body against diseases. It has high-water content of about 90 to 95%, which makes it fragile.
Tomato grows well in a loamy soil, and thrives better in a soil with an acidic pH. It’s best grown during dry season as they do not really require a lot of rainfall for germination. Keep down weeds initially by cultivating lightly being careful not to damage roots. Water with an inch or so of water every week if there has been no rain and even if there has, wind conditions can dry a bed quickly so check the soil a few inches down to make sure it is still moist. Deep mulch after the plants are established will keep weeds at bay and retain moisture in the soil. Prune lower branches from suckers but leave some suckers on upper branches to protect fruits from the sun. Compost is usually applied on the plant after they flower.
Production of tomato requires the combination of agricultural inputs such as land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship. Labour is vital in any agricultural ventures and must be planned for. Farm Power is an essential input in agriculture for timely field operations for operating different types of farm equipment and for stationary jobs like operating irrigation equipment, cleaners, graders and other post harvest equipment. Farm power sources provide labour for agricultural operations. Availability of adequate farm power is very crucial for timely farm operations for increasing production and productivity and handling the tomato produce to reduce losses. With the increase in intensity of tomato cropping the turnaround time is drastically reduced and it is not possible to harvest and thresh the standing crop, on one hand, and prepare seed bed and do timely sowing operations of subsequent crop, on the other hand, in the limited time available, unless adequate farm power is available (Mohammadi and Omid, 2010).
Food and Agricultural Organization (2011) asserted that farm power is the pivot to agricultural revolution in many parts of the world, contributing greatly to the increased output. Ndidi (2017) opined that Nigeria needs to enhance the number of farmers who utilize mechanical power based mechanization in order to: increase the food production capacity of farmers leading to reduced poverty and improved livelihoods; reduce the drudgery associated with agricultural production; reduce the level of post-harvest losses that occur across different agricultural value chains and; increase the prospects of the local agro-allied industry and the conversion of crops and tubers to Value Added Products (VAPs). The mobile farm power comes from human, draught animals, power tillers, tractors and self propelled machines; whereas the stationary power is obtained from oil engines (diesel, petrol, and kerosene) and electric motors ((Mohammadi and Omid, 2010).
Human powered source is the use of hand tools and manually operated equipment that rely on human power. Most of the activities in the agricultural sector in Nigeria are carried out with traditional equipment such as hoes and cutlasses. Human powered implements are the lowest level of mechanization, and result in limited agricultural productivity of farmers.This dependency on human power has not only contributed to low agricultural productivity but also fostered the importation of food from countries which have an average of 281 tractors per 10,000 hectares of arable land (FAO, 2011). Farm operations could be mechanized using animal power.
         Animal power based mechanizationis the use of animals such as horses, oxen, mules, donkeys and bulls to drive primary tillage implements and to transport farm produce. According to FAO (2011) animal power based mechanization is the second highest level of mechanization. The quantity of work achieved by draught animals varies considerably, but can be up to 5 to 20 times greater than human labour.
Engine powered machines are the highest level of mechanization, obtaining energy from sources such as fossil fuels, wind or solar resources. According to FAO (2011), a farmer dependent on agricultural mechanization can provide enough food to feed up to fifty people while a farmer using draught animal power can only feed six people. Given the drive towards attaining food security, there is increasing awareness and investment in the use of engine powered machines across the agricultural value chain in Nigeria. In Nigeria, the only means of raising agricultural output is through the intensification of farm power inputs usage which may not be sustainable in the long run (Ibrahim, 2009). Meanwhile, agricultural production have been plagued by challenge of local knowledge, upfront cost of machines, fragmented land holdings, poor access to maintenance service and spare parts and poor status of the local agricultural equipment fabrication industry.
Similarly, for precision farming, increasing area under irrigation, conservation tillage, agricultural waste management and diversification in agriculture, more power is required for water lifting and precision placement/application of agricultural inputs—seed, fertilizer, irrigation water, plant protection chemicals etc and meeting the requirements of diversified agriculture. There has been close nexus between farm power availability and increased productivity.
In sub-Saharan Africa, which Nigeria is included, women usually contribute 60–80 percent of the labour for food production and have extensive traditional knowledge of dealing with natural resources and the natural environment. van Eeredewijk and Danielsen (2015) in a study reported that the labour burden for women was concentrated in weeding, tillage and land preparation; postharvest management and transport of agricultural produce; and chopping and collecting fodder, fetching water and child care. The authors found few signs of mechanization to lessen the burden, because the assumption is that women are expected to work hard. Advocating for a reduced work burden for women does not fall within social norms, and women themselves do not have time available to access resources and information that might lead to the reduction of the work burden via investment in mechanization.
In fact, it is often men who conduct commercial transactions at farm level and consequently men who make decisions and control the resources required to invest in mechanization (especially capital). Moreover, with the ongoing trend of male migration to urban areas, coupled with the advancement of climate change, women have an increasingly central role in agricultural production and commercialization; nevertheless, they still have little access to mechanization (van Eeredewijk and Danielsen, 2015) of tomato farms.
- Statement of the Problem
         Tomato production is labour intensive.Farm operations for tomato production ranges from soil solorization of nursery bed, preparation of seed bed, sowing, seed treatment, land preparation, transplanting, manuring, irrigation, weed control, plant protection to harvesting and marketingrequires varied source of farm power to ensure effective production.Furthermore, farmers in the study area conduct farm operations using hand tool technologies. This is the case because many farmers lack the resources to acquire agricultural machinery like tractors and ploughs. Farmers are faced with the challenge of shortage of humanpower and high cost of tractor and diesel engine for carrying out of some of the farm operations as most young individuals prefer white collar jobs to farm work. More so, farm animals for draught implements are rarely found in the study area.Â
