Karnataka - Mysore   

Farmers dump tomatoes, cabbages

By Our Staff Correspondent

A surplus production of tomatoes and cabbages has led to a fall in their prices forcing farmers to dump them on the streets near the old RMC Yard in Mysore.

MYSORE, MAY 2. After tomatoes, it is now the turn of cabbages to be strewn over the roads of Mysore city by farmers, who are bitter over the fall in the prices of their produces.

Several farmers, who brought truckloads of tomatoes and cabbages to the city in the last few days, have resorted to dumping their produces on the roads around the old RMC Yard on Sayyaji Rao Road, as they have failed to fetch the desired price.

The less than a rupee for a kg of tomato and cabbage offered by traders has led to widespread dejection among farmers. While a few farmers threw tomatoes on the road, others threw cabbages to cattle. And, some others offered cabbages to cattle owners at a throwaway price.

Most farmers returned home after failing to get even transportation cost of the produces, which they had ferried from places as far as 50 km away from the city. The loss arising out of the fall in prices of tomatoes and vegetables has affected many farmers, who have incurred debts.

After the Agriculture Department and the Command Area Development Authority authorities warned them against sowing paddy or sugarcane in view of the poor water level in the Krishnaraja Sagar and Kabini reservoirs, most farmers cultivated tomatoes and cabbages, both short-term crops, which require less amount of water.

Tomatoes and cabbages were not only grown on rain-fed agricultural fields, but also on wetlands with water from either canals or tubewells. Hoping to secure a good price, the farmers spent large sums of money on seeds, saplings, pesticides and labour. But little did they know about the lack of demand for their produce.

Far from helping them earn money, the rich harvest of tomatoes and cabbages most farmers reaped actually did them in. For, the surplus out-put of vegetables in the region is seen as the main reason for the fall in their prices.

Many concerned farmers are thinking of transporting their produce to markets in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, besides Bangalore. The plight of farmers in the region has once again brought into focus the Government's policy against providing support prices to perishable commodities such as tomato, cabbage, cauliflower, etc. The absence of cold storages and the refusal of the Government to acknowledge the need to announce support price to perishable commodities have pushed farmers to the brink.

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