Tomato Farmers Asked to Invest in Value Addition as Market Price Drops

With tomato prices in the Coimbatore district plummeting and farmers losing money, the Department of Agricultural Marketing and Agri-Business is asking farmers to invest in value addition.

Farmers should get into tomato processing to make tomato puree, sauces, and jams.

Farmers should join the nearest Farmer Producer Organization (FPO), according to K. Sundaravadivelu, the FPO's Deputy Director.

The government has supplied a tomato puree producing machine to the Velliyangiri Farmer Producer Company, which is currently in use.

"The Department of Agricultural Marketing and Agri-Business has assigned the tomato puree vending machine to Velliyangiri Uzhavan Farmer Producer Company at Pooluvapatti in order to raise the average income of tomato farmers and help them avoid low market rates."

"It can be used by farmers to turn tomatoes into value-added goods. This will allow them to avoid the current low market rates while also significantly increasing their revenue," he said.

To create tomato chips, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has a variety of value-added machines, including sun dryer equipment. 

Farmers can seek help from the University's Post Harvest Technology Department, he noted.

The mobile unit includes machines to separate tomato seeds and peel, process the puree, prepare sauce or jam, and bottle the products, according to D. Premkumar, Chief Executive Officer of the Velliyangiri FPO. 30 kg tomatoes take around 1 hour to process.

The machine can be used to show how tomatoes can be processed to farmers. According to him, one of the FPO members intends to rent the equipment and use it.

Sundaravadivelu claims that tomatoes are produced on almost 2,000 hectares in the Coimbatore district, with 350 hectares currently in production.

In Coimbatore, the average tomato output is 15 to 20 tons per acre.

Pooluvampatti in Thondamuthur, Madukkarai, and Kinathukadavu are among the tomato-growing locations, and the main tomato market in Coimbatore is at Nachipalayam, from where it is often shipped to Kerala.