Agriculture
- Light Requirements For Tomatoes
By Heather Rhoades Growing tomatoes and sun go hand in hand. Without enough sun, a tomato plant can?t produce fruit. You may be wondering how much sun do tomato plants need and does my garden get enough sun for tomatoes? These are important questions...
- Tomato?s Genome Sequence Finally Cracked!
44 Though science has still not replied to the eternal question of whether tomato is a fruit or a vegetable, it has stepped closer to answering it. The full genome sequence of tomato has been discovered by an international team of scientists, working...
- Tomato Genome Decoded: Researchers To Publish Fruit's Dna Sequence In Full
By: Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience Staff Writer Published: 05/30/2012 01:07 PM EDT on LiveScience For years scientists have slaved away, trying to piece together the genes that make up the ripe, red goodness that is the tomato. They have finally published...
- Indian Tomatoes Flooding Pakistan
Lured by high profits, Indian traders are flooding the Pakistan market with tomatoes, affecting domestic supplies and pushing up prices back home. Truck loads of tomatoes sourced from Delhi and Nashik are entering Pakistan through Attari-Wagah border...
- Indian Tomatoes Flooding Pakistan
Lured by high profits, Indian traders are flooding the Pakistan market with tomatoes, affecting domestic supplies and pushing up prices back home. Truck loads of tomatoes sourced from Delhi and Nashik are entering Pakistan through Attari-Wagah border...
Agriculture
Tomato
Tomato is one of the most popular and widely grown vegetables in the world ranking second in importance to potato in many countries. The fruits are eaten raw or cooked. Tomato in large quantities is used to produce soup, juice ketchup, puree, paste and powder, it supplies vitamin C and adds variety of colours and flavours to the food. Green tomatoes are also used for pickles and preserves. Its many forms are adapted to wide range of soils and climates extending from the tropics to almost the Artic circle. It has many other uses; tomato seeds contain 24 per cent oil used as salad oil and in the manufacture of margarine. By virtues of its many attributes, tomato is considered as a favourite crop for research in physiology and cytogenetics, all over the world.
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) belongs to the genus Lycopersicon under Solanaceae family. Tomato is a herbaceous sprawling plant growing to 1-3 m in height with weak woody stem. The flowers are yellow in colour and the fruits of cultivated varieties vary in size from cherry tomatoes, about 1?2 cm in size to beefsteak tomatoes, about 10 cm or more in diameter. Most cultivars produce red fruits when ripe. Tomato is a native to Peruvian and Mexican region. Though there are no definite records of when and how it came to India , the Portuguese perhaps introduced it to India.
Tomato is one of the most important "protective foods" because of its special nutritive value. It is one of the most versatile vegetable with wide usage in Indian culinary tradition. Tomatoes are used for soup, salad, pickles, ketchup, puree, sauces and in many other ways It is also used as a salad vegetable. Tomato has very few competitors in the value addition chain of processing.
2. International scenario :
Tomato is the world's largest vegetable crop after potato and sweet potato, but it tops the list of canned vegetables. The total global area under tomato is 46.16 lakh ha and the global production is to the tune of 1279.93 lakh tonnes. The major tomato producing countries, area, production, productivity and percentage share in the world production is given in Table 1.
Table 1. Area, production, productivity and percentage share
of world production
of world production
Country | Area (000? ha) | Production (000?t) | Productivity (t / ha) | % share of world production |
Brazil | 61 | 3453 | 56.61 | 2.70 |
China | 1305 | 31626 | 24.23 | 24.71 |
Egypt | 195 | 7600 | 38.97 | 5.94 |
India | 535 | 9362 | 17.50 | 7.31 |
Iran | 139 | 4781 | 34.40 | 3.74 |
Italy | 139 | 7187 | 51.71 | 5.62 |
Mexico | 119 | 2800 | 23.53 | 2.19 |
Spain | 72 | 4810 | 66.81 | 3.76 |
Turkey | 260 | 10050 | 38.65 | 7.85 |
USA | 167 | 11043 | 66.13 | 8.62 |
Others | 1624 | 35281 | 21.72 | 27.56 |
TOTAL | 4616 | 127993 | 27.73 |
Source : NHB Data base (2005-06)
The world trade in tomato consists of an export of 49.50 lakh tonnes valued at 50802.88 lakh US$ and imports are to the tune of 47.30 lakh tonnes estimated at 50415.26 lakh US$
3. National scenario :
The state wise area, production and productivity of tomato is given in Table 2.
Table 2. State wise scene Area, Production and Productivity of Tomato in India
STATE/UTs | Area (000? ha) | Production (000?t) | Productivity (t/ha) |
ANDHRA PRADESH | 76.50 | 1453.50 | 19.00 |
BIHAR | 46.00 | 727.20 | 15.81 |
CHHATTISGARH | 29.20 | 365.80 | 12.53 |
GUJARAT | 29.30 | 650.00 | 22.18 |
HARYANA | 17.10 | 257.30 | 15.05 |
KARNATAKA | 44.50 | 1188.10 | 26.70 |
ORISSA | 100.40 | 1332.20 | 13.27 |
MADHYA PRADESH | 20.40 | 306.70 | 15.03 |
MAHARASHTRA | 35.00 | 987.00 | 28.20 |
TAMIL NADU | 22.00 | 277.70 | 12.62 |
WEST BENGAL | 50.00 | 857.20 | 17.14 |
OTHERS | 64.10 | 959.10 | 14.96 |
TOTAL | 534.50 | 9361.80 | 17.52 |
Source : NHB Data base (2005-06)
The major tomato growing tracts in India are given in Table 3.
Table 3. Major tomato growing tracts of the country
State | Major tomato growing districts |
Uttar Pradesh | Varanasi, Mirzapur |
Himachal Pradesh | Shimla, Kullu, Solan |
Punjab | Amritsar, Ropar, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur |
Haryana | Rohtak, Sonepat, Jhajjarr, Faridabad, Karnal |
Rajasthan | Jaipur, Dholpur, Alwar, Tonk, Bharatpur |
Bihar | Vaishali, Sitamarhi, Bhagalpur, Patna, Aurangabad, Nalanda, Bhojpur, W&E Champaran |
Jharkhand | Ranchi, Lohardaga , Hazaribagh, Godda |
Maharashtra | Nashik, Ahmednagar, Pune, Nagpur |
Gujarat | Surat, Valsad, Baroda, Ahmednagar, Gandhinagar, Kedha, Jamnagar |
Madhya Pradesh | Satna, Sagar, Jabalpur, |
Chhatisgarh | Raipur, Durg, Bastar, Bilaspur, Raigarh, Surguja |
Orissa | Bolangir, Kendrapada, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar |
Andhra Pradesh | Rangareddy, Mehabubnagar, Prakasam, Vishakapattanam, Chittor |
Karnataka | Kolar, Bangalore, Bellary, Dharwad, Belgaum |
Tamil Nadu | Thiruvannamalai, Salem, Dharmapuri, Coimbatore, Erode,, Trichy, Madurai, Dindigul |
Tomato is mainly grown as Rabi crop in the plains of India. However in the hilly region it can also be grown as a summer and rainy season crop.
- Light Requirements For Tomatoes
By Heather Rhoades Growing tomatoes and sun go hand in hand. Without enough sun, a tomato plant can?t produce fruit. You may be wondering how much sun do tomato plants need and does my garden get enough sun for tomatoes? These are important questions...
- Tomato?s Genome Sequence Finally Cracked!
44 Though science has still not replied to the eternal question of whether tomato is a fruit or a vegetable, it has stepped closer to answering it. The full genome sequence of tomato has been discovered by an international team of scientists, working...
- Tomato Genome Decoded: Researchers To Publish Fruit's Dna Sequence In Full
By: Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience Staff Writer Published: 05/30/2012 01:07 PM EDT on LiveScience For years scientists have slaved away, trying to piece together the genes that make up the ripe, red goodness that is the tomato. They have finally published...
- Indian Tomatoes Flooding Pakistan
Lured by high profits, Indian traders are flooding the Pakistan market with tomatoes, affecting domestic supplies and pushing up prices back home. Truck loads of tomatoes sourced from Delhi and Nashik are entering Pakistan through Attari-Wagah border...
- Indian Tomatoes Flooding Pakistan
Lured by high profits, Indian traders are flooding the Pakistan market with tomatoes, affecting domestic supplies and pushing up prices back home. Truck loads of tomatoes sourced from Delhi and Nashik are entering Pakistan through Attari-Wagah border...