Newer plant viruses resistant to most pesticides are one the reasons for the rising prices of daily essentials like tomatoes, ginger and tur dal. While tomato growers have been struggling to control new viruses for about a decade now, production of ginger, capsicum, chillies, papaya and this year tur dal have also been affected due to newer pests and diseases, farmers and experts said.
“When tomato prices crashed, farmers reduced spraying on the crops to cut losses. This led to increased pests,” said Ajay Belhekar, a tomato grower from Pune district. In high input cost crops like tomatoes and capsicum, farmers shift to other crops when they incur losses due to price crash or plant diseases. The prices of hybrid tomato seeds of big companies are upwards of ₹70,000/kg.
