Dip in tomato prices lands farmers in the soup

PALAKKAD: The price of tomato has hit rock bottom at Rs 3.50 a kilo, much to the misery of farmers, who now have to sell two kilos of the vegetable to get a tea from a restaurant in the town.“Though prices fluctuated daily, a 15-kilo box was sold for anything between Rs 40 and Rs 60 last week. Deliveries from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh is the main reason for the low price. It is said that there has been a bumper crop this season in the two states. This is in stark contrast to the price of Rs 300 to Rs 500 a box during the same time last season,” said Mukesh, who is a wholesale dealer of vegetables in Velanthavalam market. He said Naachipalayam market in Coimbatore and Kinnatikadavu market in Pollachi were selling tomato at Rs 3 a kilo.The farmers in Vadakarapathy, Ozhalapathy, Kuppanda Gounder and Velanthavalam on the Kerala side, and Vazhakal, Pitchanoor, Veerapanoor and KG Chavadi on the Tamil Nadu side depend on the Kerala market to sell their produce. Tomato is cultivated on hundreds of acres of land in the eastern parts of the district like Kozhinjampara, Meenakshipuram, Kozhipara, Elippara and Attayampathy.For a farmer to break even, he has to sell tomato at Rs 100 per 15-kilo box. The wages for a worker range from Rs 150 to Rs 300. A packet of tomato seed cost Rs 250, and it takes seven packets for an acre. A tractor load of cow dung costs Rs 1,500. And it requires a minimum of two rounds of chemichal fertilisers and pesticides,” says Arumughan, a farmer from Ozhalapathy. “To get a box of tomatoes to Velantavalam market from Kuppandakounder, it costs Rs 7 per box,” says Ananda Kumar, chairman of the standing committee of the Vadakarapathy panchayat, who is both a tomato and plantain farmer in Attayampathy. The panchayat gives subsidy for vegetable cultivation but it is not enough, he said.“We are ready to intervene in the market to ensure a fair price for the farmer. But we are helpless if there is huge arrival from the neighbouring states,” says Arun Kumar, district manager of the Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council of Kerala.  However, the fact is that there are no storage facilities under the Agriculture Department, and farmers are at the mercy of market forces for the price.