Low yields, poor rains dampen tomato cultivation in Madanapalle

Tomato prices in the Madanapalle market have touched the ₹54 per kg mark on Saturday (August 09), registering a steep ₹20 jump in exactly one month. The price stood at ₹34 a kg on July 9. Coming to the second grade of the stocks, the price stood at ₹42, as against ₹27 last month. The yield plummeted to the lowest level in the past decade, given the supply of 106 metric tonnes at the Madanapalle market yard on Saturday, while the figure was 1098 metric tonnes a month ago. The traders and tomato farmers attribute the strange phenomenon to the deficit rains and crop damage due to the uncongenial climatic conditions.

Madanapalle revenue division is considered Asia’s largest tomato-producing belt with a traditional cultivation area running into 15,000 acres. In the last decade, the acreage started receiving a drubbing due to unstable climatic conditions, dropping between 10,000 acres and 6,000 acres. Despite hard times, the tomato production continues to dominate the region’s landscape in Madanapalle, Mulakalacheruvu, Tamballapalle, Nimmanapalle, Gurramkonda, and Valmikipuram mandals of Annamayya district, coupled with a substantial presence in Punganur, Palamaner, Gangavaram, and V.Kota mandals of Chittoor district.

This year, the kharif sowing touched rock bottom all over the region due to scant rainfall, while a prolonged dry spell further affected the fortunes of the farmers.

Tomato farmers deplore that, expecting early arrival of the South-west monsoon, as was initially predicted by the weather officials, they had gone in for huge private loans to get the soil ready by June. Incidentally, some youth have joined the tomato cultivation in recent years, taking agricultural lands on lease. “Production costs per acre will be around ₹32,000, including seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, and initial labour. In the absence of stable prices, we struggle to recover the investment,” said 32-year-old Govardhan of Gurramkonda mandal.

From June onwards, the region received a deficit of rainfall, but with slight rains in the first week of August. “We are supposed to be ready with bumper crops by the first week. But, sowing is yet to take place in 50% of the area. Due to fluctuating fortunes amidst either bumper or dampening crops, the prices crash to ₹10 or even below a kg by November every year,” said Kokkanti Manjunath, another farmer from Valmikipuram mandal.

Meanwhile, the traders in Madanapalle observed that their plans to export the stocks to the northern States did not materialise this season as sufficient harvest was reported from there, with copious rains in summer and stable soil moisture by June, contributing to bumper crops.

A horticulture official said that though the prices have gone up this month, it would benefit only a very few farmers, as against a large number of 4000-plus of them. “Almost the entire tomato trade is dependent on the private sector. Even the government’s intervention of purchasing the produce from farmers and supplying them to consumers at subsidized prices doesn’t arise now. It will happen only in case of a price crash amidst bumper crops. Here, it’s poor yields and the prices are neither too heavy nor too low,” he said, adding that the strange situation has to be watched.