Farmers worried over low price of tomatoes

By Our Correspondent,Sarlahi, Dec. 26: Farmers of Sarlahi have been worried due to low price of tomatoes this year.Farmers are in trouble because the market price is not good during the main season of tomato. Tomato is being sold for Rs. 400 per crate (25 kgs) in Lalbandi market, the main commercial centre of the district.

Farmers complained that they did not get the price of tomatoes from the beginning of this year even though they got good prices during this season last year. Madhav Kharel, a farmer of Hariwan Municipality-2, Atrauli, complained that it would be difficult to recover the investment for the cultivation of tomato as they did not get the price at the beginning of the season.

"In the previous year, the farmers who grew tomatoes at the beginning used to get a good price, but this year there is no price from the beginning," Kharel said.

"The peak time for tomato production is yet to come. At that time, the price will drop even more. Last year, farmers used to sell tomatoes at up to Rs. 1,000 per crate in the first harvest." A crate contains 25 kgs of tomatoes. Tej Bahadur Gole, a farmer of Lalbandi Municipality-10, Chandrapur, said that farmers did not get the price of tomatoes because of middlemen.

"When a crate of tomato is sold for Rs. 400, it comes to Rs. 16 per kg. When this happens, how can we collect money for pesticides, fertilisers and workers?" Gole said, "Because of the middlemen, we have not received a good price." Farmers are selling tomatoes themselves in the market by putting them on bicycles, motorbikes, tire carts and tempos.

According to the Agricultural Wholesale Market Management Committee, Lalbandi, farmers could not get good prices due to low demand for tomatoes from outside cities.

Shambhu Prasad Ghimire, manager of the committee, informed that the supply of tomatoes from here has decreased after tomatoes started supplying to big cities like Kathmandu and Pokhara from other places.

"A lot of tomatoes used to be supplied from here to Kathmandu and Pokhara, but now after the expansion of tomato farming everywhere, the demand for tomatoes from Sarlahi has decreased," Ghimire said. "The supply of tomatoes from Lalbandi has decreased. Due to low demand, farmers have not been able to get a good price."

According to him, about two trucks of tomatoes are now being supplied to different cities of the country from Lalbandi market daily. Tomato is cultivated commercially in Lalbandi and Hariwan Municipalities of the district