As the cost of tomatoes continues to rise in Indian markets, an Indian farmer in Maharashtra’s Pune district has earned more than INR 15 million ($182,754) in a month by selling 13,000 crates of tomatoes.
Tukaram Bhagoji Gayakar cultivated tomatoes on 12 acres of land with the help of his family.
Gayakar told local media that his family grows good-quality of tomatoes, and their knowledge of fertilizers and pesticides helps them ensure their crops are safe from pests.
On Friday, he sold a total of 900 crates of tomatoes earning INR 1.8 million in a single day. Usually, they use to sell one crate of tomatoes and earn INR 2,100 from it.
One crate is usually 20-25 kgs of tomatoes.
However, the profit started increasing in the past month when the price of tomatoes sky-rocketed in the market.
Traders have earlier told Sputnik that erratic weather, including heatwaves in March and April, followed by cyclone Biparjoy which was accompanied by heavy downpours, which resulted in the devastation of farmers' crops - has caused tomato prices to rise four to five times of late.
India's Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh states are the primary sources of vegetable cultivation. In all these regions, extreme weather patterns impacted the crop this year.
Meanwhile, as the price of tomatoes sore in the Indian market, giving profit to a few farmers in Maharashtra and Karnataka, a tomato farmer was found dead earlier this week, and the murderer took away all the money he earned by selling tomatoes.