The Hindu Business Line : <I>Fetching remunerative price for tomatoes </I>

The tomato price might have hit the roof now in the Capital; but what about the status of this ubiquitous edible crop that is flooded in the market during most part of flush season.

Instances are plenty the tomato growers seeing the prices falling even below the production cost prefer to leave the fruits unplucked from the plants to escape economic loss.

The distress of tomato growers is reversible if only they realised the value of lycopene, the carotenoid pigment from the tomato whose extraction has a `niche' export market, according to Dr G.S.V. Raghavan, a James McGill professor from McGill University, Canada.

Per kg lycopene extracted fetches high prices in the international market and farmers in India who have excelled in agriculture production, especially in food and fruit crops, could tap this big money by adopting innovative crop storage practices.

Dr Raghavan, who was participating at a function at the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University got up to market the inauguration of the food processing business incubator, said grading of the tomatoes and their processing would boost farmers' income as there was scope to develop both domestic and export market for the `sun-dried' tomatoes whose usage is expanding.

While grade one and two tomatoes can be sent to fresh market, the grade three varieties could be used for `sun-drying'. The fourth grade could be used for pulp, juice purposes.

As part of the seed technology and grain storage system being developed under the inter-university collaboration between McGill University and the University of Agriculture at Dharwad, efforts are being made to evolve suitable storage system for the seedless grapes grown in Dharwad and Bijapur.

The collapsible crates used for storing and transporting food crops evolved under this collaboration has proved beneficial for the farmers as they could prevent post harvest losses considerably.

More Stories on : Horticulture/Fruits & Vegetables

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