Tomato farmers see red as 3 years of bumper crop pull down prices

Apart from a 35% spike in output, slow pace of capacity addition in food processing sector has taken a toll on farmer incomes

Tomato prices soar to 60-70 per kg due to crop damage in producing states

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The price data maintained by the ministry also showed a sharp increase in prices of tomato in the last one week. Photo: Reuters

Virendra Singh Rawat T E Narasimhan Lucknow/Chennai

Last Updated : May 06 2018 | 12:44 PM IST

Distress in the farm sector has spread from oilseeds, pulses and cotton to horticulture crops. If it was potato a few weeks ago, tomato farmers are now struggling with low prices.

Bumper tomato harvests during the last three years have caused prices to crash across states. Production in 2017-18 is pegged at 22.3 million tonnes, 35 per cent higher than in 2014-15. Prices that fetched handsome returns egged tomato farmers on to take up farming the vegetable in a big way in this season, adding to the glut and price fall.

Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka are the country’s top tomato producers. Prices have fallen everywhere, but during this season farmer distress was visible in states like Uttar Pradesh,