Procure tomatoes, Centre will help with losses: Union minister to Maha

Mumbai: Union Minister Bharati Pawar has said the Maharashtra government must buy tomatoes farmers are throwing away due to a production glut and subsequent fall in prices, and 50 per cent of any loss incurred by the state while selling them would be borne by the Centre.

Speaking to reporters on Friday night, Pawar said she had spoken to Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on the issue and they had informed that export of tomatoes was underway and there was no ban on it.

”The Centre has suggested to the state that it should procure tomatoes from the market and sell it using its network. The state can do so under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS). If the state incurs losses, 50 per cent of it would be borne by the Union government,” Pawar, Union minister of state for public health, said.

However, she said there was hardly any demand for tomatoes in the international market and the Centre was looking for a solution to the problem.

After a good run for the past two years, prices of tomatoes crashed recently, forcing many farmers, like those in Nashik, to throw their stock on the streets in protest.

She also informed that the Centre had issued a notification regarding MIS and the state government must submit its proposal at the earliest.