Tomato farmers in Odisha's Ganjam district are facing severe losses as prices have crashed to `3 to `5 per kg at the farm level, despite being sold for `10 to `15 per kg in the market.

Unable to recover even basic production costs, many farmers have been forced into distress sales, while some have abandoned their crops altogether.

"After spending so much time and money on the crop for the last three months, we are not even recovering the labour wages spent on harvesting," said Surath Pahan, a tomato grower from Satrushol village in Ganjam block. On Friday, he sold around 15 quintals of tomatoes at `3 per kg.

"In our area, some farmers even abandoned their crop after traders offered them just `2 per kg," said Pahan, who cultivated tomatoes on an acre of land. "Forget about profit, we cannot even recover the basic expenses on seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and transportation," said Daya Pradhan from Math Mukundapur village. Instead of selling tomatoes at such a low price, "I decided to feed the crop to my cattle," said Upendra Polai, a farmer from Shatrusola.

Ganjam block is one of the major tomato-growing areas in the state.

Kand Jena, deputy director of the horticulture department, said tomato prices crashed in the district over the past week. "A bumper crop this year is one of the reasons behind the drop in prices," he said.

Several farmers opted to grow tomatoes, a short-duration seasonal crop, leading to an oversupply and a price dip. "In Ganjam, tomatoes were grown on around 1,500 hectares this season," Jena said.

Brundaban Khatei, a farmers' leader and former zilla parishad member, said tomato growers suffered due to lack of food processing industries and cold storages in the district.