Rain Or Shine, The Glow Eludes Growers Yet Again

Sky-high tomato prices have set off WhatsApp jokes, but the farmer is shortchanged—and left only to weep.

- Pragya Singh

RITIK and Pawan are aware of the flip side of their arduous journey from the hills of Himachal Pradesh down to the plains of Delhi this monsoon. As tomato growers in Mangarh of Sirmour district, they drive for ten hours to reach the national capital’s wholesale vegetable market at Ghazipur. The entire effort of bringing the fresh produce is worth much more than what they eventually sell it for. The duo also knows that tomato growers bore the brunt of a glut this April, when hundreds of farmers were forced to throw away their harvest for want of break even rates.

But now, they are getting Rs 50 a kg, yet Ritik and Pawan are left sour. In any case, they have no choice but to accept what wholesale commission agents at Ghazipur offer them. Even during a supply shortfall, as at present, it’s the grower who is being shortchanged. The ‘mandirate’—the price at which they hand over produce at the mandi via a commission agent—has them chafing all over again. The farmers are highly upset. For, while boarding their truck for Delhi, they saw TV reports pegging the tomato prices above Rs 100 a kg.

Not just Delhi, across the country the juicy vegetable has raced to unheard­of prices at Rs 80 to 120 a kg. The dizzying pace at which the red staple is burning holes in consumer’s pockets had these tomato farmers from Himachal praying for more income than ever this season. That wasn’t to be. “We are getting Rs 50 a kg for our best tomato. For the rate we heard on TV, we should be getting at least Rs 80 in the mandi,” says Ritik. The gap between the anticipated income and real is not inexplicable to him: “Traders and retailers are pocketing the biggest profits the tomato has ever earned anybody.”