Tomato prices close to Thammadapalli area in the Nalgonda district is very minimal and local farmers are demoralized by the same fact. Nagamani, a local tomato farmer was intending to furrow his field with plump tomato crop, however, discouraged by the low costs for the same in the vegetable market. The farmgate costs are administered at rupees 3 for every kilo of Tomato. However the same is sold at rupees 20 to 30 per kilo in different retail stores in the urban areas.
Nagamani said, "the vendors from the vegetable market offer us a total of rupees 150 for a 30 kilo box, that comes up to rupees 5 per kilo of tomato. The offered amount is very less and hardly covers our labour and transport costs".
The IT employee’s forum, which has as of late began working with mosambi farmers, came to think about the pain among the tomato farmers. Founder-member, Kiran Chandra commented, " We addressed a gathering of farmers with the assistance of Mr. Nagamani. At first they were hesitant as the expense of transportation will be excessively high.
Mr. Kiran added, "The individuals from the affiliation pooled rupees 10,000 towards the expense of transportation and sent the same to the farmers. "Empowered by the motion, they sent three tons of tomatoes. At the same time, we are in contact with different high rise complex cooperatives and persuaded them to buy the product from the farmers.
He also said, "Inside a couple of hours of influx, all the produce got auctioned off. The ranchers got a price of rupees 15 per kilo. Thrilled, they consented to send three more tons of tomato the following day,".
The forum (ForIT) also started an identical drive for the mosambi farmers a few months back. The farmers were receiving a mere minimum price of rupees 0.25 to 0.50 for a single mosambi. After talking with the farmers, the forum decided to help them and because of the removal of middlemen in the process, the farmers are now receiving rupees 1 to 1.25 for every fruit of mosambi.
