Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

Tomatoes selling at 25 paise per kg.!

By Our Staff Reporter

KURNOOL Dec. 17. The tomato growers of Pathikonda belt in Kurnool district are caught in the "fag end glut'' with prices nosediving to below 25 paise per kg. Some farmers could not meet even the transport cost from the sale of the produce.

Finding the price totally unremunerative, many farmers dumped the tomatoes in the Panchayat marketyard in Pathikonda town three days ago forcing cancellation of trading. The average price of a 12 kg. basket fell to Rs. 4 and in some cases the traders refused to buy inferior quality tomatoes. The crisis arose because of a sharp fall in the prices at Chennai, Hyderabad and Vijayawada because of arrival of locally grown produce.

Tomato is grown in over 25,000 acres every year in Pathikonda, Devanakonda, Aspari and Adoni areas of Kurnool district. Around 50 truckloads of tomatoes leave the markets for different destinations, while the peak season export touches 100 truckloads. Despite the glut and pest attack every year, farmers go in for tomato cultivation as it is the only cash crop in the area. They usually transplant the saplings in June and July after the first rains. The yield starts from August and most of the produce is exported to Chennai when the prices are reasonably fair around that time.

The tomato yards in the area, numbering about 10, have been integrated with markets at Chennai, Hyderabad, Nalgonda, Miryalaguda and Vijayawada. The local agents have wide contacts with traders in the cities. But the growers experience the glut every year at the fag end when the Chennai and Hyderabad markets refuse to take the produce.

The farmers who had sown the crop early had recovered most of the cost of the cultivation and made a reasonably good profit. Farmers who sowed late are caught in the glut. Kasamanna of Rathana village who brought his the produce to the Pathikonda market said he cultivated tomato on 1.5 acres and invested Rs 4,000. So far, he received Rs 20,000 from the sale of tomatoes. In the initial stages, the price was as high as Rs 10 a kg when they made a fortune.

Another farmer, Galenna of Pathikonda, who raised the crop on 1.5 acres irrigating it with borewell water, received Rs 23,000. Both said the current glut did not affect them much. But all are not as lucky as the two. Narasimhulu of Devanakonda cultivated the crop in half an acre of land investing Rs 3,000. On irrigation alone, he spent Rs. 1500 and bought water from a neighbour. He could not receive even a quarter of his investment by the time prices tumbled. The yield from the plot was as low as 15 kg per day when the price looked up. Now, the crop has picked up but the market is depressed.

Lakshmanna of Pathikonda spent Rs. 20 on transporting eight baskets of tomatoes to the market by auto, which fetched him only Rs 19. Two of his family members slogged the whole day collecting the crop from the farm.

The authorities started market intervention operations yesterday which resulted in a marginal raise in the prices. The authorities planned to buy the fruit and supply it to Raithu Bazars at Hyderabad. Also, the Joint Collector, M. Dana Kishore, visited the markets and announced exemption of local cess and commission, but the intervention might not provide much relief.

A section of farmers and politicians have been demanding setting up of a pulp factory in the area. But the survival of the factory itself would be difficult because the factory requires supply round the year for its capacity utilisation. The factory would run into trouble when the prices are high. Also, tomato pulp products do not have a large market.

Slogging for a pittance

As the distressed tomato growers are hard hit by the abysmally low prices, their wards are slogging for hours for a pittance in the tomato market yards. The middlemen and traders have engaged children to carry tomato baskets from the auction platforms to the grading yard. The traders prefer children because they carried head loads for paltry wages of Rs 10 a day for six hours of work.

Scores of children who are around 10 years old can be seen carrying baskets, each weighing 8 kg. at the Pathikonda market yard. While the children carried the baskets from the platform to the trucks, adults graded, packed the fruit into wooden crates and loaded the boxes into the trucks. Many children refused to reveal their wages under the instructions of the merchants.

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