Tomatoes paint the Hyderabad markets red

Hyderabad: Known as an all-weather crop and an essential part of regular staple food, the juicy tomatoes keep marking their way into the city markets especially the Beginning with 2,310 quintals of arrival on September 1, the mouth-watering tomatoes with rosy texture coupled with uniform size dominate other veggies in the markets as the most preferred vegetable of the season with 2,711 quintals of fresh arrival was recorded on September 13 followed by potato and dry onion.

With a maximum price of Rs 1,200 and minimum Rs 600 a quintal, the fresh juicy produced is making into the Gudimalkapur wholesale market all the way from Rangareddy, Nizamabad, Andhra Pradesh, (Madanapalle), (Anantapur) and neighbouring Karnataka. This has brought the price to maximum Rs 19 and minimum Rs 15 a kilo in retail markets. However, the agricultural experts warned of using a hybrid variety of tomatoes that, according to them, serves no health benefit to the humans, and instead leaves a harmful effect on body.

"Only the organic variety of tomatoes is good for human consumption as it carries the required amount of water and other nutrients intact while the hybrid variety leaves harmful effects on human health due to the use of urea and pesticides. Besides, the hybrid variety increases production cost and crop expenses as the hybrid seeds are very costly that would ultimately take a toll on the farmers. Thus, it entails low income for farmers and high prices for customers in the market," Asserted Narsimha Reddy, an agriculture expert.

"Because of urbanization, the production of tomatoes dropped significantly in Hyderabad and surrounding districts especially in Rangareddy, once considered as a vegetable hub of the Telangana state," he added.