Too many vegetables, too little money: Prices crash after note ban

Tomato farmers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were the worst hit since prices fell by 60-85%

Sunil Kumar, a 31-year-old farmer in Tondala village, Kolar district, 85 km east of Bengaluru, lost Rs 3,00,000 in November when tomato prices crashed after the November 8, 2016, scrapping of 86 per cent of bank notes, by value, and the excess supply of vegetables. Kumar, who cultivates tomatoes on his five-acre farm, said he made a profit of Rs 30 lakh during the same time last year.

The 110 per cent drop in income from 2015 has come at a time when the weather — and so the harvest — was good this year, said Kumar. So, demonetisation couldn’t have