Nagamani, a farmer near Thammadapalli in Nalgonda district, was planning to plough his field with ripe tomato crop, disheartened by very low prices for the commodity in the market. The farmgate prices are ruling at ₹3 a kg. (It, however, is sold at ₹20-30 a kg in various retail outlets in cities.)

“They (the vendors at the markets) would give us ₹150 for a box of 30 kg. It means that just ₹5 a kg, which is hardly sufficient for us to meet labour and transport costs,” Nagamani told BusinessLine.

The Forum of IT Employees, which has recently started working with sweetlime (mosambi) farmers, came to know about the distress among the tomato farmers.

“We spoke to a group of farmers with the help of Nagamani. Initially they were reluctant as the cost of transportation will be too high,” said Kiran Chandra, Founder-member of the Forum.

The members of the association pooled ₹10,000 towards the cost of transportation and sent it to the farmers. “Encouraged by the gesture, they sent three tonnes of tomatoes today. In the back-end, we are in touch with various apartment complex associations and convinced them to purchase the commodity from the farmers,” he said.

He said the mood among the middleclass consumers is in favour of the farmers in the backdrop of farmers’ protests in Delhi.

“Within a few hours of arrival, all the produce got sold off. The farmers got ₹15 a kg. Elated, they agreed to send three tonnes more tomorrow,” he said.

The ForIT, which fights for the issues faced by IT employees working in various companies, started a similar initiative two months ago for mosambi (sweetlime) farmers. “We got to know that they were getting just ₹0.25 or ₹0.50 a piece, making it unviable for them. We discussed the problem and decided to help them out,” he said.

“As there are no middlemen and consumers are sympathetic to their cause, the farmers are now getting about ₹1-1.25 a piece,” Kiran Chandra said.

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