Tomato At Rs 100 A Kg; Why Is India Seeing Red?

New Delhi: The rise in the price of tomatoes, without which many an Indian dish is incomplete, has hit monthly budgets in households. As retail prices touched Rs 120-130 at some places on Monday, the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India under the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution began selling tomatoes at a subsidised price of Rs 65 per kg in Delhi.

In many parts of the country, customers are paying at least Rs 80-90/ kg for tomatoes. According to Consumer price data compiled by the ministry, average prices on October 7 had increased significantly from a month ago, with the south zone average price having almost doubled over this period.

The main reasons for the sudden price spike are lower-than-expected sowing, and destruction of market-ready crops in some parts of the tomato zone due to heavy rain in the last week of September, The Indian Express reported quoting farmers.

As of September 20, a total sowing of 1.98 lakh hectares (lh) of Kharif tomato was reported, far below the target of 2.89 lh. On this date last year, 2.20 lh of Kharif tomato had been sown. Unlike onion, which is grown thrice a year, there is only a Kharif and a rabi tomato. Kharif tomato is grown mainly in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana; the Rabi crop is grown in parts of Maharashtra and parts of Karnataka, according to the report.

Rabi tomato is transplanted in February-March and harvested after about 160 days. The Kharif crop is transplanted after June-July, and transplantation can continue till September in parts of Maharashtra.

The extreme heat of last year nudged many farmers to move from tomato to crops like maize this year. The rabi tomato crop could not withstand sustained temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius, TIE reported a tomato grower from Junnar taluka of Pune district as saying.

The area of maize in the country has gone up from 84.56 lh last year to 88.50 lh this year. The resilience of the crop in extreme weather and increased demand from grain-based ethanol manufacturers are reasons for the popularity of maize. Many farmers had complained of bacterial and viral disease attacks on their tomato crop last Kharif. Tomato is cash intensive and farmers say it needs a capital input of at least Rs 1-2 lakh per acre, the report added.

The modal (average) price of tomato at the wholesale market of Pimpalgaon Baswant in Nashik is currently around Rs 52-55/kg. Prices are expected to stay at this level or even rise further in the coming days, according to farmers. Fresh harvests in Nashik and Telangana after Dussehra will supply the market for some time, but prices are likely to rise again as another supply squeeze follows, according to the report.