Problem
Tomato, onion and potato prices swing sharply between years
- National
The Department of Consumer Affairs reported an all-India average retail tomato price of ₹52 per kg on 8 August 2025, against ₹54 a year earlier and ₹136 in 2023. The Ministry of Food Processing Industries has told Parliament that tomato, onion and potato prices fluctuate with weather, arrivals from non-traditional areas, changes in sowing patterns and overlapping seasons, and that no study of its Operation Greens price-stabilisation scheme had been conducted as of February 2022. These are consumer prices. How the swings pass through to the prices farmers receive is not established by the sources used here. Evidence confidence: Medium — volatility is documented at retail; the effect on farmers is not quantified.
This is the most specific entry on this branch of the catalogue. The evidence behind it is below.
Who is responsible
- Ministry of Food Processing Industries · Ministry or DepartmentRuns Operation Greens.
- Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution — Department of Consumer Affairs · Ministry or DepartmentMonitors retail prices.
Evidence and sources
- Centre Actively Monitors and Intervenes to Ensure Stable Prices of Tomato, Onion, and Potato · Official statementMinistry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, 8 August 2025. All-India average retail tomato price Rs 52/kg, against Rs 54 a year earlier and Rs 136 in 2023.
- Price Volatility of 'TOP' Crops — reply in Rajya Sabha · Official statementMinistry of Food Processing Industries, 4 February 2022. Factors behind tomato, onion and potato price fluctuations; no study of Operation Greens had been conducted.
Alongside this
Regulated markets are far apart, and small farmers struggle to reach them
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture reported in January 2019 that an APMC market served an average area of 496 sq km, against the 80 sq km recommended by the National Commission on Farmers in 2006, and that about 41,000 markets would be needed to meet that standard. It noted that small and marginal farmers face inadequate marketable surplus, long distances to APMC markets and a lack of transport, and that 4,600 of about 22,000 rural haats were to be upgraded under the GrAM scheme. The figures are quoted through PRS Legislative Research's summary of the report, and the market-density figure has not been updated in the sources used here. Evidence confidence: High for 2019; current density unverified.
Most farmers who sell MSP crops do not sell to government procurement
In NSO's 2019 survey, 14.5 per cent of agricultural households selling paddy in July–December 2018 sold any of it to a procurement agency, and 9.7 per cent of those selling wheat in January–June 2019; 23.7 and 20.8 per cent of the respective output sold was sold under MSP. An earlier estimate by the High Level Committee on restructuring the Food Corporation of India (2015), using NSSO data for 2012-13, found that only 6 per cent of all farmers in the country gained from selling wheat and paddy directly to a procurement agency. State-wise and crop-wise differences in procurement are large but are not quantified in this entry. Evidence confidence: High for the survey years.
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