Krishnan brought the first round of his tomato harvest in 25 crates to Rayakottai tomato mandi on Monday. At the mandi, a crate of 24 kg to 26 kg was going at ₹100. It was roughly ₹5 per kg, far below my cost of cultivation per acre, says Krishnan, a tomato grower from Pillayar Agraharam.

“I convinced the trader to buy, even as he was reluctant,” says Krishnan. The crates that came thereafter were just lying there without any takers. “You cannot blame them. Shops are closed, and markets have fewer footfalls and less demand and therefore low prices,” he says.

Krishnan, with a marginal holding of one acre, only hopes he meets the cost of production. Farmers, who depend on family labour, spend around ₹20,000 per acre, and those cultivating larger areas and depend on wage labour incur higher costs up to ₹30,000 per acre.

Last year, Rayakottai, the largest tomato growing area in the region, saw low production. Tomato growers sold a crate between ₹1,300 to ₹1,100. “I sold my crates for ₹1,300. There was less production and high demand,” Krishnan says

This year, the yield is good adding to the supply, but COVID has axed the demand.

The farmers incur the vehicle rent, crate rent of ₹10 per crate and the commission of ₹10 per ₹100 to the mandi for each crate sold.

According to Srinivasan, owner of Rayakottai tomato mandi, there is a fall in farmers coming from afar to drop their produce at the mandi. “Farmers from as far as 60 km used to come with their produce. But, it has shrunk to a 10-km radius, because they are not getting the price.”

Rayakottai has over 4,000 acre under tomato cultivation. The produce cannot be sold as food for livestock too as animals take sick from overconsumption of tomato, says Krishnan.