Euphorbia Plant Extracts: The Solution to the Tomato Wilt Disease

Abstract

Tomato is one of the most important vegetables in Kenya and plays a critical role in income generation and creation of employment for both rural and urban populations, in addition to meeting food nutritional requirements. Tomato is a nutritious vegetable that provides good quantities of vitamins A and C. The crop is grown for the domestic market under both rain-fed and irrigated conditions. Due to its high demand, most farmers have extensively adopted high-yielding varieties and modern technologies such as greenhouse production to ensure year-round and increased production. However, tomato farming is still threatened immensely by several pests and disease, the most devastating of these being bacterial and fungal wilt disease, with some farmers experiencing 80-100% yield losses per growing season. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the potential of extracts of different plants (See Figure 2) against the tomato wilt causing pathogens.