| dc.description.abstract | Diseases are hindrance to tomato production in Kirinyaga County, Kenya. However, information on
farmer’s knowledge about tomato diseases to warrant pesticide usage is scanty. Further, there is
information gap on disease predisposing factor such as varietal choice and seed source. This
study assessed the tomato farmers’ socio characteristic, varieties grown, seed source and
knowledge of selected foliar fungal disease among tomato farmers in agro-ecological zones
(AEZs) of Kirinyaga County. A cross sectional survey design that in cooperated purposive
sampling and snowballing approaches was adopted in the study. Data were collected from 120
tomato farmers using structured questionnaires. A chi square (Ӽ2
) test was used to examine the
association between different variables at α= 0.05 using SAS version 9.4. No significant
association (p > 0.05) was observed between gender of farmers and AEZ. Nonetheless, there
were more men (83.33%) than women (16.67%). Terminator F1 variety was popular among
farmers (25%). No significance (p > 0.05) association was observed between source of tomato
planting material and AEZs. However, Agrovet was a popular seed source among farmers (40%).
The reasons for choosing a particular tomato variety was significantly (p < 0.05) associated with
the AEZ with 40.83% of farmers preferring tomato varieties with good marketability traits such as
fruit size. Farmers’ knowledge of causative agent of early blight, late blight and Septoria leaf spotwas significantly (p < 0.05) associated with AEZs. The source of farmer’s knowledge on tomato
foliar fungal diseases was not significantly (p > 0.05) associated with AEZ. However, farming
experiences was a popular source of knowledge (51.67%) among farmers. Inability of some
farmers to identify tomato diseases negates the efforts on disease management in tomato
production in Kirinyaga County. Therefore, measures such as coordinated education on tomato
diseases is necessary to empower farmers on disease causes and identification to enhance
disease management and improve tomato yields in Kirinyaga County in Kenya. | en_US |
