Direct Offers, a vegetable garden east of Tonota, recently suffered damage of tomatoes.
Consultant adviser at the farm, Mr Anthony Peel said in an interview that over and above low demand for tomatoes countrywide, the farm was attacked by pests such as red spider, tuta absoluta and leaf miner that destroyed both the leaves and tomato seeds.
He, however, assured the farm’s 86 employees, mostly females, that they would not lose their jobs.
His assurance followed utterances of fears by some of the farm workers that they would lose their jobs.
Some of them said they were breadwinners.
Mr Peel said in a situation like that, it was prudent to keep the workers to fight the pests than letting them go.
He further indicated that though the situation was worsened by high pesticides prices, they would soldier on.
Direct Offers is a 12-hectare vegetable farm that produces a variety of vegetables including onions, garlic, eggplant, maize, green pepper, beetroot, spinach, cabbage, lettuce and Chinese vegetables.
