Tomato Conference 2023

Tomato (Solanum esculentum L.) (Family: Solanaceae), has the enviable distinction with Onion and Potato as “TOP” crops in the agricultural landscape of India. A highly popular and almost a daily necessity in the kitchen, tomato is in high demand throughout the year across the world. A native of Latin America tomato for the first few hundred years was believed to be poisonous across Europe!
In India, tomato is cultivated over 800,000 ha annually, with an average yield of 24 t/ha which is far below the productivity in China and other developed countries. Most of the tomatoes produced in India are consumed fresh with only a small percentage (~2%) taken for processing. The advent of heat and leaf curl tolerant hybrids with better keeping quality heralded a revolution in tomato production in India in the last 2-3 decades but market integration and price stability are lacking. Thus, market intelligence and price forecast have been missing links. Farmers often have to face the spectre of apparent glut even with marginal productivity and crop abandonment without even harvesting the crops is observed during February -April every year. On the contrary, at times from June to September retail price of tomato exponentially increase leaving the consumer and policy makers red faced.

Tomatoes in the recent past have remained volatile and the prices are beyond the reach of common people. Reasons can be many and varied in different agro-ecological zones of the country. But what is lacking is a clear understanding of the factors contributing to turbulence in tomato prices and ways to mitigate volatility in the long run. It is not a clearcut case of demand and supply but much more than that. It could be the high temperatures in the peninsular India in summer months and/or break down in resistance to TLCV accentuated by super cyclone in Gujarat and Rajasthan in June and very high precipitation across north India. The insect Tuta and many viruses further confound the problem.

Note: fee includes 18% GST

Anyone interested to attend the conference virtually, please connect via email

Note: 18% GST will be applicable on each category of sponsorship, exhibition and booklet insert as per GOI rules
*see the annexure for more detail.

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Foundation for Advanced Training in Plant Breeding (ATPBR)
in partnership with
University of Horticultural Sciences (UHS), Bagalkot, Karnataka