New Delhi: In the last month, the prices of tomatoes have fallen by 29 percent. The consumer may have gotten relief due to the reduction in the price of tomatoes, but it has become difficult for the tomato-growing farmers to meet the cost of their crop. In Tamil Nadu, no trader is ready to buy tomatoes for Rs 3 a kg in the market.
When the farmers who came to sell tomatoes in Coimbatore’s Kinathukadavu vegetable market did not sell their crops, they were compulsively dumped on the highway. About a ton of tomatoes were scattered on the highway. Farmers say that the rate of a crate of tomato weighing 15 kg is being said at Rs 50 in the market. Not only this, even at this price, tomatoes of all the farmers were not sold, so they had to throw away their crops under compulsion.
Huge loss to farmers
According to a report in India Today, farmer Periyasamy, who came to sell the crop in the mandi, told that Rs 75,000 is spent to prepare one acre of tomato crop. If tomatoes are sold for Rs 15 a kg in the market, then the farmer’s cost is met. But now no trader is ready to buy tomatoes in the market. So the farmers have no option but to dump it.
Bumper cultivation of tomatoes in Dharmapuri
Due to the favorable weather in the Dharmapuri area of Coimbatore, there has been bumper cultivation of tomatoes this time. Tomato is cultivated on 9,300 acres in Dharmapuri. The district produces on average more than 60 tonnes every year. Tomato prices were touching the sky earlier this year. The area under tomato cultivation also increased due to higher prices.
Tomatoes getting cheaper
The Consumer Ministry said that the prices of tomatoes have come down by about a third in a month, while the prices of onions have become 9 percent cheaper than last year. On Tuesday, the average price of tomatoes across the country stood at Rs 37.35 per kg, up from Rs 52.5 per kg a month ago. This fall in prices has come due to the preparation of a new crop after the monsoon rains.
