HYDERABAD: Tomato yield increased significantly this season leading to a crash in prices of the perishable commodity in the state, horticulture director L. Venkatarami Reddy on Friday.
About 3,00,000 metric tonnes of tomatoes were produced on 20,000 hectares this season and additional supplies kept pouring into the markets from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, which did not allow farmers to get reasonable prices for their produce, he said.
Ranga Reddy, Adilabad, Siddipet, Sangareddy and Mahabubnagar districts witnessed an exceptionally large produce of tomatoes this year.
In fact, Telangana was among the few states in the country where the tomato crop was sown in a large quantity during the season, Mr Reddy said. Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the other states that had a high yield.
The horticulture director had a word of advice for farmers who grow the tomato crop. He said tomatoes could be grown all through the year with the drip irrigation facility, and hence staggered sowing of the crop should be done instead of all at one go.
He said farmers could also go in for alternative vegetables that are in demand like beans, cabbage, cauliflower, bitter gourd, ridge gourd, etc. Tomato farmers could form groups and explore markets further away to get a good price for their produce, Mr Reddy said.
The horticulture director urged the public to buy tomatoes in large quantities.
