Tomato farmers in Adilabad, India, are dismayed that they are unable to find buyers for their crop. The farmers are unwilling to harvest the standing crops as they cannot cover labour and transportation costs and therefore feeding their produce to cattle.
Anticipating huge profits, farmers raised the crop, but are now unable to recover even part of their input costs. As they cannot find a way to repay the money borrowed for cultivation, the dejected farmers have been demanding the State government pay compensation of Rs 20,000 ($ 291) per acre.
If the government does not come to their rescue, they say that they have no alternative but to commit suicide like the cotton farmers. According to reports, a 30-kg tray of tomatoes, which used to sell for Rs 400 ($ 5.82), is now only selling for between Rs 30 or 40 ($ 0.44-0.58).
