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Tomato-nomics: Sky-rocketing Price and Possible Solutions for Summer Tomatoes

Tomato is an essential ingredient of vegetable cuisine. The availability of tomato in winter season is sufficient and even over production causes glut situation, however its scarcity during summer and rainy seasons is also observed. Surprisingly, in the year 2023 faced problems of sudden upsurge in tomatoes prices due to imbalance in demand and supply. Owing to several reasons it caused sudden upsurge in tomato prices such as extreme weather conditions (heat and rainy season), tomato viral diseases, insufficient financial returns and farmers' shift from tomato cultivation. The Government of India has taken initiative to address these issues through 'Tomato Grand Challenge', dissemination of information system for crop planning and market intelligence, post-harvest management and storage technologies. In this article, we suggest a few solutions to address the issues through buffer stocking, cold storage, processing industries, transportation, minimum support price, market linkage between farmers and consumers, and reform in mandis system.