Centre procures tomato under Price Stabilisation Fund to provide respite to consumers

In order to check the current increase in prices of tomato and make it available to the consumers at affordable prices, government said on Friday that it has started the procurement of tomatoes under Price Stabilisation Fund and is making them available at a highly subsidised rate to consumers.

"The price of tomato is expected to come down with the increase in arrival of new crop from Nashik, Naryangoan and Aurangabad belt in Maharashtra and also from Madhya Pradesh," said Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution in a statement.

The National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) are continuously procuring tomato from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra and making it available at affordable prices in major consuming centres in Delhi-NCR, Bihar, Rajasthan, etc. after subsidising the price to the consumers, said government. "The tomatoes have been disposed initially at retail price of Rs 90/kg which has been reduced to Rs 80/kg from July 16 and further reduced to Rs 70/kg from July 20," said the ministry.

"Current increase in tomato prices may incentivise farmers to grow more tomato crop, which is expected to stabilise the prices in coming months. The Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DAFW) implements Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) to protect the growers of perishable agri-horticultural commodities from making distress sale in the event of a bumper crop during the peak arrival period when the prices tend to fall below economic levels and cost of production. Under the scheme, the loss on account of the fall in price is borne between the Central Government and State Government on 50:50 basis. Since the inception of MIS till date, the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has not received any proposal from State Governments for market intervention to address distress sale of tomato," the ministry added.