Bontanga (N/R), Sept. 24, GNA - The International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC) is to assist farmers in the Northern Region to cultivate variety of tomatoes, which are heat tolerant.

The project is being collaborated by Savannah Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

The tomatoes seedling, which was acquired from the international Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid-Tropics in Niger produces more fruits and lasts long.

Dr Wilson Dogbe, Head of Rice Programme at SARI who made this known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during a field trip to one of the pilot farms at the Bontanga Irrigation Project at the weekend, said about 3.5 acres of the new variety have been piloted by farmers in four communities in the Tolon/Kumbungu District of the Northern Region.

He said due to the nature and taste of the new tomato variety of farmers, traders and consumers are demanding more of it.

Dr Dogbe said the two collaborating institutions are ready to support farmers with seedlings to cultivate about 20 acres during the next farming season farming season.

“After these, the research and fact finding (project) will then be focused on issues relating to pest and disease that will emanate. During the next season the project will also identify farmers to produce seedlings for the next season to save us (SARI) from importing seeds,” he said.

Alhassan Iddrisu, a farmer at Vogge told GNA in an interview that comparing the old tomatoes to the new variety, the new one has many advantages than the old type saying, “The old one yields big, it taste nice and it last long before it goes bad”.

“Market women who buy from me have even requested me to grow more of the new variety due to the favourable feedback from customers in the Tamale Metropolis,” he said.

Mr Iddrisu said he would expand the current to about two acres next season and lauded the initiative by the IFDC and SARI.