The factors affecting productivity of tomatoes in Luweero District

Abstract

The study focused on factors that affect the productivity of tomatoes in Luweero district, using different locations of Wobulenzi,Kalule,Bamunanika and Kalagala and the objectives of the study are; to examine the characteristics of of farmers that produce tomatoes, to establish the factors that affect the productivity of tomatoes and to to examine the differences in profitability for the farmers that use improved management practices and those that do not and data was collected from 60 respondents The study revealed the characteristics of tomato farmers are having an average age of 36years with atleast an experience in tomato production and a few can access extension services male is the dominant gender and secondary school is the prominent level of education, they mainly use open field production and both local and hybrid variaties and use own savings and family labor to facilitate production, the soil type used is loam and they practice soil and water conservation measures .The study also revealed that the factors that affect productivity are: age, gender(male), marriage, education level, access to extension services, pests and diseases soil type but the most significant factors are hybrid variaties and soil and water conservation measures with a percentage of 83.33% and the constraint in tomato production is pests and diseases and the best measure is to use modern pests and disease control measures The recommendation is that farmers should encourage soil and water conservation measures and use improved varieties to boost production and also adopt modern pests and disease control methods.