Centre invites ideas from public to curb tomato prices

Subject : Schemes

Concept :

The Indian government has launched a ‘Tomato Grand Challenge Hackathon‘ in New Delhi, urging the public to propose creative solutions to combat the escalating tomato prices in recent weeks.

About Tomato Grand Challenge Hackathon

The newly launched contest welcomes participation from various sectors including students, research scholars, teachers, industries, start-ups, and professionals.
Rohit Kumar Singh, emphasized that participants can contribute ideas related to the tomato value chain.
The objective is to ensure affordable prices for consumers while enabling farmers to receive fair value for their produce.
The hackathon has been organized by the Department of Consumer Affairs in collaboration with the Innovation Cell of the Ministry of Education.

Reasons for price rise

The cycle of planting and harvesting seasons and the variation across regions are primarily responsible for price seasonality in tomatoes.
Apart from the normal price seasonality, temporary supply chain disruptions and crop damage due to adverse weather conditions etc. often led to the sudden spike in prices.