HAVERI
Till a month ago, tomatoes were fetching Rs 20 per kg. Now they are fetching Rs 130. With this, farmers are facing the problem of protecting their produce as thieves have been stealing the now expensive vegetable from farms and from stalls too.
To counter this menace, Krishnappa Jogappanavar, a farmer in the district, has installed a CCTV camera at his farm, where he also sells tomatoes, in Akki Alur village of Hanagal taluk.
Now tomatoes have become a luxury, and farmers have made top-class arrangements to protect their produce. Krishnappa who is afraid after tomatoes were stolen at some places due to the price hike, has installed a CCTV camera in his roadside shop to prevent theft.
According to sources, Krishnappa has been cultivating vegetables on his small farmland for his livelihood. He sells the vegetables at his roadside shop and at weekly vegetable markets in Akki Aluru and surrounding towns and villages. He got bumper tomato crop this season, At the Akki Aluru weekly vegetable market recently, he had placed a CCTV camera on the tomato heap at his shop.
I used a CCTV camera while setting up the roadside shop in the weekly market. Tomatoes are fetching huge prices and the CCTV technology is helping me prevent theft of the valuable vegetable, Krishnappa said.
Due to the price hike, each tomato now costs at least Rs 10. People come and buy tomatoes from me because they are the best in this market. But while I am be busy attending to customers, some miscreants may just grab a few tomatoes and I wouldn’t know. I don’t want to lose out on anything. So I got the battery powered CCTV camera, he added.
