Farmers strike gold as tomato prices surge

COIMBATORE: Tomato farmers are striking gold as their produce has been fetching good profits like never before due to unprecedented price hike.

Thanks to the short supply from major tomato producing states, farmers in this region have begun to harvest success stories with a smile. Strikingly, for the first time ever, T Venkatesh, a farmer from Kundadam, took home a lump sum amount of over Rs 4 lakh a few days ago by selling 3,800 kg of tomatoes harvested from his farm in Tirupur.

This 26-year-old farmer switched over to tomato cultivation five years ago after trying shallots for long in his 10 acres farmland. Proving his decision right, Venkatesh sold off his produce of 260 crates each with 15 kg of tomatoes for a total of Rs 4.03 lakh in the Thennampalayam wholesale market last week.

This sudden turn of fortune, with an unexpected increase in price of tomatoes has brought smiles for this humble farmer as it comes a year after he suffered severe loss in shallots cultivation.

“I met with a huge loss of Rs 10 lakh by harvesting shallots, which were then procured for a throw away price of just Rs 5 to 10 from farmers. I destroyed my entire produce of 30 tonnes in the farm itself without harvesting due to the drastic drop in its prices,” Venkatesh added.

With the price hike in tomatoes, the farmers say the price of seeds and saplings have also risen sharply. “Eight grams of tomato seed costs Rs 1,200 and a sapling costs Rs 1 in a nursery. Tomato prices have begun to reduce gradually and may come to normal by the end of this Tamil month of ‘Aadi’. A crate of 15 kg tomatoes, which were sold for Rs 1,550 until a week ago has now dropped to Rs 1,100. Last year, around this same time, it was sold for just around Rs 500 per crate,” say farmers.

With better prices for tomatoes, more farmers in the district are now hopeful of reaping better profits. “I have begun the first harvest of tomatoes grown in my two acres of farm. This is the first time that tomato prices have reached a maximum. There will be a yield of a maximum of 30 tonnes in the next two months. Currently, the price hovers around Rs 1,100 due to increase in local arrivals,” said M Eswaramoorthi, a 54-year-old farmer from Jothiampatty in Tirupur.

Tomato cultivation is widespread across Tirupur district. “The ups and downs are normal in farming as in the year 2020, I left the grown up crops to become manure without plucking the tomatoes, as their prices plunged to a meager Rs 30 per crate containing 15 kg. A similar price drop happened in 2017 also,” he added.

Research to bring out short-term crop

Studies are likely to undertaken to find out short term varieties of tomato by taking into consideration various factors. As this is the first time tomato prices have gone so high, some research needs to be done to identify short-term crops to overcome such a crisis.

“So far our focus was only on high yielding varieties. This is the first time we are facing the crisis and so it will be taken up for research to come out with short term varieties,” said a TNAU scientist, preferring anonymity. “Mostly tomato production is focused in Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and Hosur region. This time, domestic production has been hit due to crop infestation as well as un-favourable climatic conditions. Drop in production had caused price fluctuations,” the official added.

Brothers sell tomatoes at reasonable prices

Skyrocketing price of tomatoes didn’t force these two farmer brothers from The Nilgiris to exploit the situation by selling their produce at an exorbitant rate.

Farmers, Raman K and his brother Puttusamy from Kundah gave their harvest of tomatoes from their half an acre of farmland at Kundah for a reasonable price of Rs 80 per kg, even when its prices peaked above Rs 150.

“We harvested nearly 1,000 kg in the last one month and sold them for a reasonable profit of Rs 80 per kg. Even though wholesale buyers from plains lured us with higher amounts, we refused to give and sold the tomatoes locally to the public and shops in our neighbourhood,” said Raman.

When the two brothers bought the 1,000 saplings from a nursery in Mysuru for cultivation, the tomatoes were sold as cheap as Rs 10 per kg. “Even selling for Rs 80 per kg was a dream price for us. For a long time, we were into harvesting only hill vegetables. Once we tried tomatoes for our household use and as the yield was good due to fertile soil, we decided to go for tomato cultivation. Of the 1,000 saplings, 400 had decayed due to root infection, while others grew up to give a high yield,” said Puttusamy.