Farmers in Chamarajanagar let their feet do the talking at the plunging prices for tomatoes on Monday. But surely there are other ways of registering their angst and anger? Or are the anna-daata especially empowered to show such disrespect for what fetches them their daily bread?
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
churumuri 
ayyo nodri estondu tomato waste madtha iddare. Just a month age, tomoto was sold at Rs.15/- per kili. Avaga tomoto haki saru madakku hengasaru alta iddaru. Iga nivu ali. Adare, deal profits ella middle man ge hoguthe. Adakke helodu, kothi mosaranna thindu, kuri mokakke balithu annodu.
Adaroo tomoto hannannu road ge thandu suridu waste madodu estu sari ?
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haha yes I did see this on ETv news today, ಎನಾದ್ರು ತಲೆ ಇದ್ದೀಯಾ ಇವರಿಗೆ? Rather than setting up their own stall and giving away tomato at discount prices, or organizing a tomato festival (remember we had avreykai festival recently), they are stomping it away? and as usual all we could do i laugh about it.
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churumuri to tomato churumuri?
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This is happening on many occasions. Our farmers are not properly guided in their agricultural practice and crop patterning. The so-called green shawl people just appear and they start their own ways to satisfy their own needs. How many leaders have gone to villages and advised them about what to grow and how to divide the available resources in multi-crop growing? Instead of growing tomatoe,chillies,cabbage, why can’t they other vegetables in combination epending on the fertility of the land as well as the availability of labour and water, manpower. How many of our farmers have tried their hands in growing flowers like kaakaDa, mallige, chanDuhoovu, shavanthige, sugandharaaja , maruga, pachchethene etc which is in great demand and which has demand forever. Who will guide them?
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Clearly there is an opportunity here. Such dumping happens several times a year in Mysore — variously it is cabbage, tomatoes, onion, etc.
If there is a volunteer group which would salvage whatever possible and transport it to Pinjrapole, homeless animals can be fed with juicy, nutritious vegetables at least for a day. Or how about giving the wasted tomatoes to the hard-working bullocks which work so hard hauling carts on Mysore’s streets for the same boring dry hay every day.
If there is a volunteer group to help Mysore’s animals in this way, I can arrange financial support.
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tomato cheap aadashtu churumurinoo cheap aagtide.
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I am told that when the prices are so low, even taking back the tomato would cost them more money. That seems to be the cause of frustration. Like suicide, which is described as the expression of utmost frustration, destroying their own crop also seems to be an expression of high level of frustration at the manipulative market practices. Stamping on the tomato is only symptomatic, not the problem. Our CM who wore green shawl at the time of taking oath to prlciam that he is pro-farmer, has to do something to help the farmers. Nidde Gowda, who always claims to think of the welfare of farmers is too busy dozing off!
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This is a very common scene on NH4 between Kolar and Mulabagilu.. for a difference, this kind of protest has spread to other parts of Karnataka too!
Why don’t the karnataka govt set up ‘Raitha Bazaar’ like Andhra Pradesh govt did to curb middlemen in marketing agro products?
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I have been seeing such pictures and reading such news almost every six months for the last 30 years. This is India. Suddenly, the prices of Tomatoes, Onions and Potatoes will skytocket and there will be cartoons in every newspapers. Jaspal Bhatti will make a skit. Govt. will start importing them. Even elections are fought on the price rise of onions and potatoes. And Lo! suddenly, it will start selling at ondaane-ge Eidu kilo! Even after 30 years of such sad state of affairs, no solutions have been found out, like better post-harvest technology etc. This is a serious matter, not a matter of jokes …. please.
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Criminal waste of tomatoes.
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How does it matter? It is their tomato and they can do as they wish. Surely it is better than all the other kinds of protests we’re having these days.
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chamarajnagar tomato party!!
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When tomato prices were at its peak, I’ve paid upto Rs 40 for a kilo of good apple tomato… now it is around 8 Rs per kg here in Chennai I guess.
Instead of wasting it like this, they should consider:
A. investing in setting up a cold storage facility to store them
or B. set up a factory that makes tomato based products (soup readymix, etc)
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This is better than showing their chaddis which a few “progressive” women have resolved to do to Mutalik.
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Out of frustration sir. Farmers always suffer.
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If they had chappals, you could have put yourself in it and pondered.
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They need coldstorage.
Huge amount of Indian food/fruits worth 100s of billions of dollars are lost due to lack of refrigeration. If its saved, face of india will be changed forvever.
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Why didnt the farmers give the tomatoes to the poor and hungry of the local area for free or small charge?
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Not only Tomato. Sometimes I have observed, in North Karnataka (Hubli and Laxmeshwara) farmers are frustrated to throw their products like Onions and Potatos at drainage gattars. This is because the greed of middlemen at the market,who suddenly crash their rates of buying these products.
These are the items,which will become waste within 3-4 days due to decaying.Ultimately farmers will be frustrated to throw these to guttars as they can afford their transportation charges also.
Instead of talking too much Government should focus on providing Cold storage facilities and vegetable related industies.
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The better way of protest would be to hurl the tomatoes at politicians and middlemen.
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I second Lazybug’s suggestion!
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Surely, there are better ways to protest. Stamping with feet what they have grown with love and attention and what everyone eats is one of the worst form of arrogance on the part of the farmers.
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@Hande
for a change you spoke some sense. :)
We need investments in constructing cold storage facilities.
Lot of begetables, fruits ar being wasted.
Farmers are fed up with the governance of successive governments. Nobody does anything. All big promises.
May be next time some people should contact and drive to those areas and buy directly from the farmers before they resort to throwing tomatoes like that.
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Idiot sir, what have stampaded tomatos got to do with chaddis and Mutalik? Pray enlighten!
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Guruji, what I meant is it is not obscene unlike the other protest – the pink panty one -which is making news today. Also on TOI and TH. Hope that clarifies.
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This is the criminal act of negligence by successive governments of all states and the center.
Instead of “bail out packages” they should think about sustainable rural economy, and not an economy which encourages migration to cities.
If you buy a pack of Dabur tomato puree, you will find that it is made in Nepal. Why cant governments encourage that to be setup in Tomato growing areas of KA and AP. I have seen the same scenes in Kurnool district of AP, which also grows tomatoes in large numbers. Price of tomato has plunged to 2 Rs per KG !!!
I remember similar incidents, when I myself went with my father and uncle to sell our produce of Mangoes, in an year when the prices dropped because of high produce. We couldnt get enough money to pay for the bullock cart in which we carried mangoes. This was to Asia’s biggest mango market – Vijayawada. I have seen other farmers in tears after dumping tractor load of mangoes in a drain out of frustration.
There have been numerous requests to setup cold storage facilities or agri based industries in that area, but nothing materialized.
Now, this great government is looking to turn the country into a world service center, and brought us to a stage where world economies are determining our fate, and our governments are busy offering bail out packages, to rich industrialists, who never pass on benefit to end consumers.
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And it was in response to the caption: “surely there is a better way to protest than this”.
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Gururaj B.N. – “idiot” is talking about forms of protest. There is a “feminist” website calling “progressive” women to buy and present/show Mutalik, cheddies…or shouldn’t that be panties? :)
“idiot” is saying this tomato bashing is a better form of protest.
Maybe Churumuri can have a poll to decide that :)
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Sathya is right. Our farmers should not grow what turns out to have no market.
Instead of mindlessly chanting silly slogans like “Jai jawan, jai kisan,” it may be more reasonable to teach the farmers the basics of agricultural economics.
Is this the best way to protest? This is nothing when we think of the emerging ghoulish practice of using corpses when protesting against this or that.
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This is just a gimmick to get “bembala bele” from the government.
1. if there is excess, either they should have means to get it into puree/ powder form(like Turkey does it,worlds biggest grower of Tomatoes)- use it when pricing is right. (farmer leaders instead of opposing power projects- should concentrate on these issues)
2. Why grow something which does not have demand in market? Probably no other profession, they produce anything which does not have demand!
3. When money is spent on temple celebrations, buddi jeevis cry foul, saying with same money we could have fed so many…etc., now where are they? same tomatoes, which got crushed in the protest, would have provided food for someone…
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A farmer after growing the crop, fails to get atleast his transportation money (and for that transportation fees he would use borrowed money) has got all rights to protest in what ever way. Its his suffering and unfortunately it will only last with him every time, all the time. The article and most of the commentary owners sitting in the a.c rooms instead of feeling the farmers pain make fun of it and try to say moral stories.
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Thank God! Hasimenasu alla!
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@etvraviraja,
this is not a gimmick. Perhaps you do not know the feeling of farmers when they can not get even the transportation charge of their Agri. products. The frustration makes them to do like this.
Your eyes will be filled with tears when you cut the onions. But I have seen tears in my Elder brothers eyes ( without cutting the onions ) at Hubli Agriculture market.
I still remember, the onion rate was crashed so much that, he could not afford to pay the rent of tractor of which he engaged to bring onion to Hubli market.This is all because of the greed of middlemen.
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@Anagadi Indushekhar,
a lesson learned the hard way will stick on for a long time.
@etvraviraja,
spot on as usual :)
The brahmins and their stupid anti-tomatoness are to be blamed for this :)
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Here’s an idea I pitched (via email) to Shri. L. Shantilal Choradia after reading Shwetha Pangannaya’s profile of the Mysore Pinjrapole Society in today’s Star of Mysore. Any Churumuri readers who’d like to participate may please respond on this forum.
**********
Dear Shri. Shantilal,
I am pleased to read today’s Star of Mysore article about your Society.
My dear father, Shri. ***** (of Yadavagiri, phone *******, 68 years old), is long an admirer of your selfless service. He has used your Society’s premises to test several adhesives the **** Foundation has explored in our quest to develop polyurethane horseshoes for cart bullocks to replace the often-painfully-nailed steel horseshoes.
At home my parents never discard vegetable/banana peels: My mother ******* carefully keeps aside all the peels, and almost every morning my father walks to Bamboo Bazaar or to the Old RMC Yard and treats the bullocks to a refreshing snack!
Speaking of waste, farmers in Mysore/Chamarajanagar/Mandya districts regularly dump vegetables (tomato, onion, cabbage) when the prices are down. It is a show of embarrassing profligacy. The farmers neither have a cooperative food processing facility, nor do they give away the vegetables to those who might use them. Many tonnes of hard-grown vegetables are regularly wasted in this manner.
Recently (February 9) Churumuri.com reported that several tonnes of tomatoes were dumped in Chamarajanagar — the farmers even stomped on the tomatoes during their protest!
The **** Foundation, of which I am a trustee, would like to coordinate an effort (1) to reach the spot of all such protests with a tempo, (2) salvage whatever vegetables possible, and (3) donate the discarded vegetables to cattle owners or to your noble Society. We welcome any ideas — or participation — from you to make this happen. If you have volunteers or a tempo to lend, you may be in touch with my father — we will be happy to financially support and coordinate any such effort.
Again, congratulations on your good work. You inspire us. Thank you very much.
Best,
*my name*
Trustee, **** Foundation (http://www.*********.org/)
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