Farmers in Sehore throw tomatoes due to unremunerative prices

Farmers in Shahganj area of Sehore, falling under chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s Budhni assembly constituency, are being forced to throw their tomatoes on roads due to unremunerative prices

Farmers in Shahganj area of Sehore, falling under chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s Budhni assembly constituency, are being forced to throw their tomatoes on roads due to unremunerative prices.

Tomatoes dumped in an agriculture field in Shahganj area of Sehore district by a farmer (HT photo)

Tomato is being sold at ₹2 per kg in the wholesale market as a result of which the farmers are unable to recover even the input cost and farmers in Machbai, Khitai and Amon area have thrown tomatoes by the roadside as can be seen while visiting the areas.

Machbai resident Rakesh said when he sowed the seeds the price of tomato was around ₹80 per kg in the retail market, but now it crashed. He had already spent ₹50,000 in preparing his two acre field and now it was becoming difficult to recover the input cost.

Balchandra Bhagat, a resident of Dobi said every year his family earned from cultivating tomatoes, but this year it had been a total loss.

Rakesh said Sehore had made a name for itself in tomato cultivation and its produce was exported up to Delhi in North and down south to Hyderabad and last year the farmers of this area had earned up to ₹1.25 lakh per acre by selling tomatoes on an average as a result of which a large number of farmers decided to plant it this season too.

Commissioner and director horticulture Satyanand said tomatoes were multiple harvest crop and most of the farmers had sold a portion of their produce when prices were high.

“This is the fag end of the season and there is the final burst of production for which prices must have crashed,” the commissioner said saying that he personally had not heard of farmers throwing tomatoes on the road.