NEW DELHI: With tomato price falling in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and other major producing states, the Government has decided to implement the transportation component of the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS).
Under the scheme, the Central Government will bear the cost of transportation and storage to promote the supply of tomatoes from tomato-producing states to non-producing states, bridge the price gap of perishable tomatoes, and benefit farmers.
The price of tomatoes at farm level has crashed to Rs 2-5 per kg, while consumers are still buying at Rs 15-20 in Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, and Odisha. According to government data, in the last month, the wholesale price of tomatoes crashed around 40%, whereas the retail price crashed by 36%.
Farmers are throwing away it on roads or fields instead of taking it to market. Farmers do not want to invest in harvesting instead of destroying the farm. Social media platforms are flooded with numbers of videos where farmers ruin their crops in fields.
Considering the steep drop in tomato prices, Union Agriculture Minister and Farmers Welfare and Rural Development Shivraj Singh Chouhan has approved the implementation of the transportation component of MIS for tomatoes in Madhya Pradesh through the National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India (NCCF). NCCF is making arrangements to start the transportation operations soon.
Chouhan announced this during a virtual meeting with the state agriculture minister in early January.
Under this scheme, where there is a difference in the price of TOP crops (tomato, onion and potato) between the producing and consuming States, the operational cost incurred in storage and transportation of crops from the producing State to other consuming States will be reimbursed to Central Nodal Agencies (CNA) like NAFED and NCCF, in the interest of farmers of producing states.
It is a major concern for many state governments when the price of Tomato, Onion and Potato (TOP) commodities either shoots up in lean season or crashes during surplus season every year. Meanwhile, producing states lack of proper storage facilities for perishable produce.