A Survey of Constraints to Greenhouse and Open-field Tomato Production Among Smallholder Farmers in Nakuru County, Kenya

The tomato is an important crop in Nakuru County, Kenya. However, its production has been declining, causing massive losses to the farmers. A survey was conducted in major tomato-growing regions to investigate the causes of losses. Tomato production was constrained by diseases such as late blight, early blight and bacterial wilt. Data was collected from one hundred and seventy-one farmers who were randomly selected within the regions and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Data collected included production systems, varieties of tomatoes grown and diseases that hinder production, and control methods. Data was analyzed using R software version 4.4.1. Data was tabulated to calculate frequencies and their percentages from the counts of each response. One-way ANOVA was used to test for overall significance among the groupings. The result indicated that the majority of the farmers (96.4%) were using an open field production system compared to a greenhouse system (3.6%). The most grown varieties were Cal J (Kamongo) (20.6%), DRD F1 (20.0%), and Rio Grande (15.8%). The most important diseases affecting the tomato crops were late blight (<i>Phytophthora</i><i> </i><i>infestans</i>) (26.8%), early blight (<i>Alternaria</i><i> </i><i>solani</i>) (25.5%), and bacterial wilt (<i>Ralstonia</i><i> </i><i>solanacearum</i>) (25.0%). Farmers had access to information from sources, making them knowledgeable of farming, though there are still major gaps in knowledge of insect pests, diseases, and control methods.