After the price of tomatoes crashed to figures as low as 5O paisa per kilo, farmers from some parts of Kurnool threw their harvest on the roadside or allowed it to rot in the field. The best utility tomato costs around Rs3 per KG.
Due to the rains, the crop is not coming to Hyderabad. The buyers have formed a syndicate and are not buying the crop, resulting in a price crash.
Some of them gave the tomatoes as fodder for the milk vendors’ animals.
Three months ago, the rate was between Rs 150, and Rs two hundred hence, farmers cultivated the crop in large quantities.
Now there is no MSP to the tomato growers.
However, now the price has dipped and farmers are unable to shoulder the cost of labour and transportation in the cultivation and harvest of tomatoes.
In order to avoid further losses, farmers from Palacode, Marandahalli, Aroor and Pappireddipatti in Tamil Nadu decided to let the tomatoes rot.
This would serve as a fertilizer for the next batch of crops. The harvested tomatoes, on the other hand, were thrown on the roadside and eaten by cattle and monkeys.
Farmers from the region said that such losses could be avoided if the government provided a minimum support price for crops like tomatoes.
But the retailers are selling at Rs 3O per KG.
