With tomato prices climbing up once again, the Agriculture department has rolled out a ‘Thakkali Vandi’ in a bid to keep the prices down. The mobile outlets, which will also have other vegetables and fruits, will sell tomato at ₹50 a kg, Agriculture Minister P. Prasad has said.
In all, 28 mobile outlets will be introduced, two in a district, operating from 7.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. The Agriculture Minister flagged off the first two mobile outlets in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday evening.
The tomato vans are part of the market intervention launched by the department to curb the price rise that has hit the vegetable markets in Kerala, Mr. Prasad said. The department is also planning to source tomato directly from farmers in the northern States, he said.
After vegetable prices shot up in November following rain-induced crop damage in the southern States, the Kerala State Horticultural Products Development Corporation (Horticorp) had started procurements from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
At present, the agency is sourcing 40 tonnes of vegetables daily from the two States. The Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council, Keralam, (VFPCK) also sources 170 tonnes locally to meet the market demand.
Paperwork is also progressing for making direct purchase from farmer producer organisation (FPO) in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu, Mr. Prasad said. This week, the government had also sanctioned ₹8 crore for undertaking market intervention programmes through the Horticorp and VFPCK.
The department plans to launch the “Njanum Krishiyilekkayi” campaign from January 1 to promote household-level farming of vegetables, according to the Minister. Vegetable seeds and saplings will be distributed free of cost as part of the initiative.
