Amaravati- With the price of tomato dropping sharply, tomato farmers in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district are throwing their produce on roads. The price in Pathikonda wholesale market in Kurnool district plummeted to one rupee per kilogram, dealing a huge blow to the farmers. The tomato growers lodged their protest by dumping their produce on the road. This resulted in traffic jam on Gooty-Mantralayam Road.

The protesting farmers demanded that the government come to their rescue by ensuring remunerative prices. They also demanded immediate setting up of tomato processing factory in the region to help them. Andhra Pradesh leads in tomato productivity with 41.22 tonnes per hectare across 62,000 hectares. The estimated tomato yield in the district is 22.17 lakh tonnes. In Kurnool alone, tomatoes are cultivated on around 4,800 hectares, yielding approximately 1,67,591 tonnes per annum. Every year tomatoes are produced during two seasons — August to October (Kharif) and December to April (Rabi). Pathikonda wholesale market is the second largest tomato market in the state after Madanapalli in Chittoor district. As the fluctuating market prices were resulting in losses to tomato farmers in Pathikonda region, the state government decided to set up tomato processing unit.

A government order was issued early this year, allocating Rs 11 crore for the tomato processing unit on 2.5 acre land at Dudekonda. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had promised the plant during the election campaign last year. Last month, YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy accused the TDP-led NDA government of gross neglect of the farmers after steep fall in the prices of onion and tomato in the state.

Jagan Mohan Reddy had remarked that the records which Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has set in pushing crop prices to rock-bottom levels cannot be matched by anyone. “In Kurnool, onion is being sold for Rs 3 per kg and tomato for Rs 1.50 per kg. Are these prices for farmers to survive? Should the farmer not live?” he asked. Stating that tomato growers were throwing their harvest on roads due to lack of buyers, Jagan Mohan Reddy had demanded immediate government intervention.