Tomato prices have crossed Rs 50 per kg mark in most parts of the country. Rising prices have added to the woes of the common people. However, in this environment, farmers are reaping tremendous benefits.
How Farmers Benefit: In fact, due to heavy demand, traders are camping in the areas of Karnal, Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar districts of Haryana. These are the areas where there has been a great crop of tomatoes. This is the reason why traders are buying directly by reaching the farmers. Farmers are getting many benefits from this. For example, there is a savings on transportation expenses, while there is a direct deal with the traders. Till now farmers had to take their produce to big cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Dehradun, Kolkata, Chandigarh and Jaipur.
How much profit: Farmers are getting the cost of 25 kg carton from Rs 750 to Rs 800. This is almost three times more than last year’s price of Rs 150 to Rs 200. It is a good year for the farmers after waiting for almost three years.
Expected benefits up to Rs 2 lakh: Ajay Kumar, a farmer from Ladwa in Kurukshetra district, which has three acres of tomato land, said if the price and demand remain the same for the next few months, farmers are likely to make a profit of more than Rs 2 lakh per acre.
Naseeb Singh, who rented four acres to grow tomatoes, said that for the last two years we were unable to even meet the input cost. We had to take the produce to Delhi as there were no buyers in our area. This year will be able to make up for the losses incurred in the last two years.
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Madan Pal, a businessman from Yamunanagar said that there is a good demand for tomatoes. He said that traders are taking tomatoes from Haryana to various cities of the country including Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Dehradun, apart from the mandis of Delhi. However, farmers are also complaining about poor yields. Production has been affected due to scorching heat.