"If You Stop Eating Tomatoes, Prices Will Come Down": UP Minister

Amid a sharp spurt in tomato prices across the country, Uttar Pradesh Minister of State for Women Development and Child Nutrition Pratibha Shukla on Sunday advised people that if tomatoes are expensive, grow them at home or stop eating them.

Ms Shukla participated in the plantation drive under the UP Government's massive tree plantation program and planted saplings.

"If tomatoes are expensive, people should grow them at home. If you stop eating tomatoes, the prices will inevitably come down. You can also eat lemon instead of tomato. If nobody is eating tomatoes, the prices will come down," said Ms Shukla.

Citing an example of the nutrition garden in Asahi village, the UP Minister said that there is a solution to this inflation, plant tomatoes at home. They are expensive all the time and if you do not eat tomatoes then use lemon, whatever is more expensive, discard it. It will automatically become cheaper.

"We have made a nutrition garden in Asahi village, the women in the village have made a nutrition garden, and tomatoes can also be planted in it. There is a solution to this inflation, this is not new, tomatoes are expensive all the time. If you do not eat tomatoes then use lemon, whatever is more expensive, discard it, it will automatically become cheaper," she said.

Meanwhile, Minister of State Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ashwini Kumar Choubey on Friday said that the Department of Consumer Affairs monitors the daily prices of 22 essential food commodities including tomatoes.

To check the current increase in prices of tomatoes and make them available to consumers at affordable prices, the Minister said the government has started the procurement of tomatoes under Price Stabilisation Fund and is making them available at a highly subsidised rate to consumers.

Choubey said the National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) are continuously procuring tomatoes from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra and making them available at affordable prices in major consuming centres in Delhi-NCR, Bihar and Rajasthan after subsidizing the price to the consumers.

"The tomatoes have been disposed initially at retail price of Rs 90 per kg which has been reduced to Rs 80 per kg from July 16 and further reduced to Rs 70 per kg from July 20," said the Minister while responding to the query of Kartikeya Sharma, who asked about the measures taken by the government to monitor and regulate tomato prices to ensure affordability for consumers.

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