Slump in price: Upset growers dump tomatoes on road

The price of the produce dips to Rs 2 per 15-kg box

The produce is grown in about 500 acres of the taluk. While nearly 30 quintals of the vegetable is arriving in the market the off-take is a mere two quintal. A sack of tomato is not fetching even Rs 2. Except a private seed company which is purchasing the unripened tomato, there are no takers for tomato in the market.

With the bleak possibility of recovering their capital investment, the distraught growers dumped the tomatoes on streets, before distributing them free of cost. Quintals of tomatoes were found thrown on the lands near Shadi Mahal on the town outskirts.

President of Commission Agents’ Association H S Narendra said that the slump in prices has
become an annual affair. Farmers have even stopped irrigating the crops now in view of the unrenumerative price, he said.

Support price

Legislator N Sampangi has urged the government to come to the rescue of the farmers in distress. Speaking to Deccan Herald he said that it forms the bounden duty of the government to declare support price for the produce. “But the government is shunning from its responsibility. Farmers can well commit suicide given the prevailing situation. Industries manufacturing tomato products should be set up as a permanent solution,” he urged.

The MLA said that a delegation of the legislators from the district will meet the ministers for Horticulture, Agriculture and the Chief Minister. The problem will be brought to notice of the Union Law and Justice minister M Veerappa Moily, he said.