MUTHNOOR (ADILABAD): Tomato farmers are not picking tomatoes from their fields because of the expense involved in transporting them to the market is more than the price they get for the produce from the middlemen.
In the current system, it is not farmers but middlemen who get the benefits and the profits. Farmers who cultivated the crop, sometimes don’t even get their investments back.
The lack of cold storage facilities means that the crop cannot be stored by farmers until such time as there is greater demand, and thus a better price.
The middlemen are offering Rs 2 per kilo to farmers who bring tomatoes to the market, but they sell the tomatoes for Rs 6 to Rs 10 per kilo in the open market.
With such low prices, farmers don't think it is worthwhile to harvest the crop, or, if they do, they feed it to their cattle.
Tomato crop cultivation is high in Gudihathnoor, Indravelli, Neredigonda, Utnoor and Ichoda mandals in Adilabad district.
Tomato farmers have been demanding that government set up cold storage godowns and tomato-based industries in these tomato-growing areas.
They say that the state government tells farmers to cultivate other crops or vegetables, but it always fails to provide good prices for those alternative or traditional crops or vegetables. If the government is serious about agriculture, it should help farmers by putting in place rational policies instead of doling out sops as a political gimmick.
