Tomato growers rue price crash, resort to road blockade in Annamayya district

Tomato growers blocked the Rayachoti-Madanapalle highway at Gurramkonda in Annamayya district on Sunday evening, deploring the sudden crash in the price of the produce to ₹300 per 18-kg box in the local market, far below the rate prevailing in neighbouring markets.

Farmers said that while the Gurramkonda market was quoting ₹300 a box, about ₹16 a kg, the same grade was selling at ₹500 to ₹650 a box in Madanapalle, around ₹600 in the Annamayya and Chittoor markets, and over ₹700 to ₹800 a box at the Kolar and other Karnataka markets. The gap, they said, did not cover harvesting and transport costs.

The protest started around 5 p.m. near the Gurramkonda centre in Piler constituency. Farmers sat on the road and demanded a procurement centre linked to the Madanapalle yard and a support price to bridge the disparity. Traffic on the Tirupati-Bengaluru route was hit for over an hour.

“Labour cost is ₹150 a box, while transport costs ₹70, box charge extra. At ₹300, we go home with nothing,” a farmer at the protest said. Several growers said they were on the verge of abandoning crops in the field as picking had become unviable.

Police rushed to the spot and held talks with the farmers to clear the highway. Officials said the price disparity issue would be taken up with the Marketing Department.