Hyderabad: Tomato, the most-sought-after vegetable, is also the most-perishable; that will have farmers either make a fast buck or lose out!
One often hears truckloads of tomatoes being dumped on roads, markets, due to a glut in the market, due to poor returns that is some times less than even the production and transportation costs. Out of the 1.71 lakh hectares of vegetable cultivation in Telangana, tomato occupies 0.57 lakh hectares.
Last year, the total tomato production was of 31.95 lakh metric tonnes but the price varied all through the years — from Rs 5 per kg to Rs 30 per kg. “The crop is of three-and-half months, and is grown all through the year in Medak over 14,921 hectares, Mahabubnagar 10,882 hec-tares, and Ranga Reddy 4,662 hectares, besides other districts. It’s the most-sought-after vegetable and the most perishable,” a horticulture officer said.
“It requires an investment of about Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 per acre. If the crop is good and there is a demand in the market, you will get good returns. Now, traders are buying tomato at Rs 100 to Rs 150 per box of 23 kg, which means Rs 4.30 per kg to Rs 6.50 per kg,” says Swami Das, a farmer in Kuppanagar near Zaheerabad.
Like many other farmers, Swami Das too sells the farm produce to traders who pay immediate cash. “Retail rate ranged from Rs 11 to Rs 18 per kg in Hyderabad including Rs 17.90 per kg in Big Basket etc,” he explained.
