Govt taps farmers as tomato prices soar

Tomato supply at discounted rates to help moderate prices

- Puja Das

• An NCCF truck with 25,000 kg of tomatoes reached Delhi on Thursday night from Andhra Pradesh

Farm cooperatives are scrambling to procure tomatoes directly from farmers wherever it is available to sell them at discounted prices at major consumption centres where prices of the kitchen staple have gone through the roof.

In an interview, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed) chairman Brijendra Singh said this is in addition to purchases from traders, middlemen and markets.

"We will try to not only purchase it from the mandi, where traders and middlemen are involved but also directly from farmers. If required, we will also purchase tomatoes from adjacent states and distribute them across Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) from different points," Singh said. "Prices of perishable commodities like tomatoes go high because of middlemen, but farmers do not even get 10% of it."

This comes after the department of consumer affairs (DoCA) on Wednesday directed Nafed and the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation (NCCF) to immediately start buying tomatoes from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, and simultaneously distribute them in consumption centres, including Delhi, where retail prices have recorded maximum increase in the last one month.