By Our Correspondent, Sarlahi, Jan 5:  Owing to excessive cold, production of tomatoes has declined in Sarlahi, the district well known for tomato production in the country.

The farmers said that the cold wave that started from mid-December last year had damaged the tomatoes in fields.

The production of tomatoes from 5 kattha land has declined to 7/8 crates this year from 25 crates earlier due to the cold wave, said Tej Bahadur Gole, a farmer of Chandrapur, Lalbandi Muicipality-10.

According to him, tomatoes have rotten in the fled last year due to lack of market as they did not get market because of excessive production.

“The tomatoes saplings did not give good yield this year due to cold wave. Farmers of the district have fallen the victims either of the poor climate or poor price every year,” he said.

The price of tomatoes is good this year but the production has decreased, he said, adding that a crate of tomatoes was selling at Rs. 1,200.

Local trader Mahomad Usman said that the supply of tomatoes has decreased due to low production in the district.

“The farmers had earlier been supplying green tomatoes in the market for the last few days. But now, ripe tomatoes are entering the market,” he said.

According to him, supply of tomatoes is very lower than the market demand.

Farmers of northern part of Sarlahi, including Lalbandi, Haripur, Pathakot, Raniganj, Nawalpur, Sasapur and Alautrimaa are found engaged in commercial tomato farming.

The tomato produced in Sarlahi is supplied to Malangawa, Gaur, Janakpur, Pokhara, Butwal and Kathmandu, among other cities and towns.