Tomato Value Chain in East Singhbhum and Santhal Pargana – A Study

Favourable agro-climatic conditions, high market demand and proper crop management practices have led to the rapid growth of the tomato sector with various tomato clusters springing up in Jharkhand and the crop being grown all through the year.

T omato, locally known as Vilayti or Biloti, has become one of the most popular vegetable crops among the farmers of Jharkhand. In some pockets of the state, the farming system has been organized around tomato cultivation; this rapidly growing sub-sector has begun to generate returns for farmers, who have come to rely on this crop completely for their cash income. Tomato cultivation is a labourintensive activity and, therefore, provides an opportunity for poor households with surplus workforce to be engaged in income generation. Despite the rapid growth of this sub-sector in the state, the participation of the resource poor, and small and marginal farmers has been limited. This section of farmers has not benefitted greatly by the growth of tomato cultivation in the state.

Vikas Bazaar Net (VB.Net), a forum of development organizations engaged in the promotion of market-led livelihoods for the rural communities in Jharkhand, sponsored this study—An Analysis of the Tomato Value Chain—in East Singbhum and Deoghar regions. VB.Net, along with other stakeholders, initiated the study, in order to understand the existing tomato value chain and to formulate an intervention strategy to include the poor. The objective of the study was to provide a comprehensive understanding of the entire value chain of the tomato sub-sector, identify the constraints and understand the tasks involved in developing a profarmer tomato value chain in East Singhbhum and Santhal Pargana regions of Jharkhand.