Nutritional evaluation of twenty-four disease and pest resistance tomato varieties

Abstract

Tomato, a fruit vegetable, is widely used in many dish components such as soup, stew/sauce, salad, and juice with many benefits. Even though annual and perishable, tomatoes are required yearly for use. Tomato production thus serves as a livelihood and food security activity across the country with different varieties. Some of these varieties, however, do not meet production criteria and consumer preferences. As such, introducing the twenty-four disease and pest-resistance varieties will help ease the burden on farmers and the frequent losses associated with the cultivation of non-resistant varieties. The tomato variety experimentations were conducted at Nyangua in the Kassena Nankana East Municipality of the Upper East Region of Ghana. Samples from the 24 disease-resistant varieties were collected for laboratory analysis on fruit skin colour, titratable acidity, moisture content, total soluble solutes, and vitamin C. The analyses were conducted using the official methods of analysis by the association of official and analytical chemists. Laboratory results were analysed for variance (ANOVA) using Minitab statistical software. Results indicated all twenty-four varieties contained adequate nutritional value for consumer acceptance, having passed the production phase successfully. It is, however, recommended that the varieties be commercially produced for farmers' use. Key words: Vegetable, Solanum lycopersicum, pathological resistance, nutrient composition, fruit quality, commercial production.