TIRUPPUR: A 40-year-old farmer from Palladam gave away some of the tomatoes he had harvested for free to public and destroyed the remaining crop as price fell sharply from Rs 25 per kilogram a month ago to Rs 7- Rs 12.
R Senthilkumar, of Allalapuram near Karaipudur in Palladam, told TNIE, “I spent over Rs 1 lakh cultivating tomatoes in my two-acre farmland, and I have received a good harvest. However, the transportation cost for a crate of tomatoes is Rs 30, and the labour cost is Rs 35. This makes the current price unaffordable for us. We will be fine only if we get Rs 25 per kg of tomatoes.”
He added, “Every day I take 50 to 60 crates of tomatoes to the Tiruppur market. The situation has been very bad for the last two weeks. I sold one crate (15kg) for Rs 100. I sold tomatoes at this price for three days and then brought them back home as the price I got was less".
"So, I did not harvest my tomato plants on Saturday and Sunday. I asked the villagers to pick them for free. I fed some of it to my cattle and on Monday I destroyed all my crops using a tractor because I needed to prepare my farmland for another crop.”
“Like me, around 100 small and micro farmers from Karaipudur have been affected. A minimum support price should be fixed for tomatoes to prevent such losses in the future,” he further said.
A senior official from the Tiruppur horticulture department said, “High yields are the reason for the price drop. However, prices are likely to rise in the coming days. The government must make a policy decision on fixing the minimum support price.”