Now, tomato brings tears to farmers

Adilabad: Tomato farmers are a dejected lot as there are no takers for this vegetable variety. The dejected farmers are not keen to harvest the standing crops as they are not able to realise even labour and transportation costs and hence allowing cattle to make a feast of tomatoes.

Even if harvested, tomatoes were left in the field then and there for the cattle to consume. Anticipating huge profits, farmers raised the crop, but are not able to recover even part of the input costs. Not finding the way to repay the money borrowed to raise the crop, the dejected farmers have been demanding the State government to pay compensation of Rs 20,000 per acre.

If the government does not come to their rescue, they say that they have no alternative but to commit suicide a la cotton farmers. According to reports, a 30-kg tray of tomatoes, once sold for Rs 400, is not fetching them at least Rs 30 or 40 as the market price of the vegetable plummeted from Rs 60 a kg to Re 1 a kg.

The farmers express their inability to get back investment on the crop. At the most what they get Re 1 per kg of tomatoes and sometimes, a meager half a rupee. In Indravelli, Gudihatnoor, Ichhoda, Bhainsa, Lokeswaram mandals, farmers are cultivating vegetables with a majority banking on the tomato crop.

In the district, 15,000 acres were under the crop. Each farmer on an average invested Rs 30,000 an acre to raise the crop and spent Rs 5000 additionally to save standing crops. They say what they get is hardly Rs 10,000 an acre. Sometimes, they say that the loss per acre is as high as Rs 25,000. The very word tomato is sending shivers down the spine of the farmer. Some of the farmers have already vowed to not to raise the crop at all.