Will the government learn anything from the lesson that tomato has given?

Almost every year, the tomato which makes food givers cry, this time has shaken the common citizens especially the housewives badly. The experience so far has been that onion has been making the common consumers cry, and onion has also played an important role in the formation of the government. Probably this will be the first time when tomatoes have shown prices and even in most parts of the country, the prices of tomatoes have left no stone unturned to touch Rs 150 to 200 and at many places even more than this. The situation has been seen to such an extent that when there is news of theft of tomatoes from the mandis, the news of taking the services of bouncers for the protection of tomatoes has become headlines in the media. However, now the period of fall in tomato prices has started, so the central government has also come forward through NCCF and NAFED. Although this will probably be the first record of ginger prices going around 400, but tomato has directly affected the common man.

Recently, in Britain, the advice was issued by the government not to buy items that suddenly increase in price for some time, but the interesting thing is that according to a recent survey in our country, despite tomatoes showing red-blue eyes, only 15 percent people decided to keep tomatoes out of the kitchen for some time, ie not to buy them, while 82 percent people did not refrain from buying tomatoes even though it was expensive.

In fact, the experience so far has been that there comes a time in the season when tomatoes are sold in the mandis, let alone the cost of transporting them to the mandis, and heaps of tomatoes are seen scattered on the sides of the highway. Although the prices of tomatoes increase around this time, but such a rise in prices has hardly been seen before. Although tomato is cultivated all over the country, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Gujarat, West Bengal etc. are the major tomato producing states. China is at the top in the production of tomatoes in the world and according to a rough estimate, more than 56.4 million tonnes of tomatoes are produced in China annually. India is the second largest producer of tomatoes after China. According to rough estimates, about 4 lakh tonnes of tomatoes are produced annually in the country. If a few days are left, then there is not so much fighting over the prices of tomatoes. But this year tomato has broken all the records.

Tomato has reached the countries of the world through the Andes of South America and Mexico through the Spanish colonies. In the changing times, at least in our country, tomatoes have replaced traditional pickles like buttermilk, keri, amchur, kachri etc. in all vegetables. Without tomato, the taste of vegetable is almost unimaginable, on the other hand, tomato ketchup, puree and shosh have developed their own big market. In fact, the demand for tomato has also increased due to its medicinal properties. Tomatoes are rich in vitamins C, B, K as well as choline. That’s why tomato has its own importance from the point of view of health as well. Onion-tomatoes are such that they are useful along with other vegetables like potatoes, only and only tomatoes and onions are such that they serve as attachment to the plate of the poorest of the poor, and even the kitchen of the richest is incomplete without them. In such a situation, it is natural for the common man to be directly affected by the skyrocketing prices of tomatoes.

Now the question becomes two-fold that what are the compulsions of such governments that due to a sudden increase in sentiment, the common citizens leave their trust in God and go to the side. Although efforts are being made to increase lac production, there is still a lack of post-harvest infrastructure in the country. This is the reason why farmers are forced to hand over their produce to the road. If there is benefit in every situation, it is only and only to the middlemen. First artificial scarcity is created and then a small quantity is brought to the market from cold storage so that as the prices increase, their profits increase and the common man gets crushed. Why does this happen? It also becomes necessary because what the market monitoring team of the government keeps on doing. The government not only has the data from sowing to production, but also has information about deposits in cold storage. Then what are the reasons that at one time a tomato sold for ten to twenty rupees per kg in retail touches the figure of two hundred. This applies not only to tomatoes but also to potatoes, onions, garlic etc. Now the government has also started railways for horticulture crops. This has made it easier to transport horticulture crops from one place to another. But still a lot has to be done in this direction. If a chain of cold storage has to be made, then the government will also have to arrange for air-conditioned containers.

With the increase in tomato prices, one thing has become clear that the government’s market monitoring system is weak somewhere. Nafed and NCCF woke up only when there was hue and cry over tomato prices in the whole country, otherwise according to the market assessment, they should have been alerted earlier. Market intervention is the first requirement. It becomes necessary to protect the interests of both the producer farmer and the consumer common man. In other such circumstances, the situation starts improving only by the presence of the government. It is clear that from the second day itself, when the government made tomatoes available at Rs. Therefore timely market intervention becomes necessary. Otherwise, black marketing and hoarding are encouraged and both the producer and the consumer suffer. The reason for defamation of the government is different. That’s why there should be a proactive team which keeps an eye on the market conditions and can take control of the market conditions before they become unpredictable so that common citizens do not fall in the clutches of hoarders. In fact, if the government becomes active on time for market intervention, profiteers and hoarders can be easily taught a lesson, while common citizens can also get timely relief. For this, along with a strict policy of market intervention, timely decisions will have to be taken according to the demand of the market so that profiteers and hoarders cannot control the market.

-Doctor. Rajendra Prasad Sharma