Govt to launch 'Tomato Grand Challenge' to tackle sudden spike in prices

The Central government has planned to launch a ‘Tomato Grand Challenge’ to address the sudden spike in the price of the vegetable. Tomato prices have been witnessing an unprecedented hike in several states across India with many cities selling it for Rs 100 per kilogram. Through the Tomato Grand Challenge, the Consumer Affairs Ministry will invite innovative ideas for improving the production, processing and storage of the commodity. “We will launch the Tomato Grand Challenge this week. We will invite innovative ideas, create prototypes, and then scale up as we did in the case of Onion,” Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh told PTI.  “The Grand Challenge aims to bring innovative, modular, and cost-effective solutions to develop technologies for pre-production; primary processing, post-harvest, storage and valorisation of tomato at the farm, rural and urban levels,” he added. The purpose of the challenge is to come up with a comprehensive strategic solution for reducing the loss while imparting value addition. “We have done in onion in the last one year. We received 600-odd ideas for Onion, out of which 13 ideas are now mentored under the guidance of experts,” the secretary said. The prices of tomatoes can be brought back to normal levels by improving storage and processing. Singh said that to ensure prices remain stable, innovation at the seed level, primary storage, post-harvest and crop information is necessary. The ideas will be invited for four verticals. First is developing and popularising improved tomato varieties, production technology or practices suiting the rainy season, dry and humid heat weather conditions, processing, enhanced fruit shelf life, and mechanised harvesting. Next, information pertaining to crop planning, market intelligence for farmers and interface platforms will be designed and their functions would be familiarised with various stakeholders. Third is innovative post-harvest treatments and packaging solutions to minimise post-harvest losses during harvesting, handling, and transportation. Fourth is innovative storage technologies and solutions for longer preservation and so on to reduce panic selling due to perishability. With inputs from PTI Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook_,_  Twitter and  Instagram_._