As it was a 'free offer', Gowda agreed to have half an acre of his tomato crop sprayed with the new sample insecticide when it was flowering.
Tomato farmer Gidde Gowda, Vasanth Kumar, and member of Farmers' Association at Gowda's tomato farm. (Supplied)
A 45-year-old farmer, who cultivates tomatoes on his one-acre farmland in Dodda Tumkur, Doddaballapura district, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, is a worried man as he consented to offering half of his tomato farmland to a pesticide company that wanted to test a new insecticide on tomato crops.
The result of this experiment hit the farmer badly, causing him a loss of at least ₹20 lakh worth of tomatoes — with the crops all dried up.
Like every other farmer in his neighbourhood, Gidde Gowda, a resident of Dodda Tumkur, was into cultivation of tomatoes. About a month ago, an agent from a private pesticide company approached him and recommended a newly-introduced insecticide that he could use for free on his tomato farm.
The new sample insecticide. (Supplied)
As Gowda had regularly seen the agent, who used to come around every farming season promoting some insecticide, fungicide, or pesticide, he decided to give it a shot.
When Gowda inquired with the agent about the consequences, the latter convinced him that he would get “bumper crops” with the new sample insecticide. However, Gowda was a bit reluctant — weighing the risks involved — and decided to get the insecticide sprayed on only half of his tomato crops.
“As it was a ‘free offer’ from the company, Gidde Gowda agreed to have half an acre of tomato crops sprayed with the insecticide one month ago when the tomato crops were in its flowering stage,” Vasanth Kumar TK, a farmer and a member of the Doddaballapura Farmers’ Association, told South First.
Initially, after the first spraying of the new sample insecticide was over, there was no change in the tomato crops. However, after the second spraying that happened around 20 days ago, the tomato crops started to show changes within a couple of days, Gowda said.
The dried tomato crops at Gidde Gowda’s farmland
“Two days after the second spraying, the tomato crops started looking faded and withered. Gowda called up the agent immediately and informed him about the development, but he instead pacified Gowda that the crops would gradually become all right. In a matter of eight to 10 days, the tomato crops spread across half an acre of Gowda’s farmland dried up,” Vasanth Kumar said.
However, the tomato crops on the other half acre were healthy and there were tomatoes to reap.
Gowda then called up the agent and explained what had happened to his tomato crops, to which the agent replied that he would inform his seniors about the issue and look into what could be done for Gowda.
However, when Gowda called up the agent the next day, there was no response. Since Gowda had recorded all of the company agent’s phone conversations, he took it forward to the Farmers’ Association in Doddaballapura and complained about the incident.
Farmer Gidde Gowda and the members of Farmer Association in Doddaballapura. (Supplied)
The association members also tried calling the company and the agent, but in vain. They later lodged a complaint with officials of the Horticulture Department in Doddaballapura who sent a team of officials to collect samples from the tomato farm on Wednesday.
“They told us that they would give us a report by Friday and, with the report, Gowda is contemplating taking legal action against Tata Rallis company,” Vasanth said.
“As Gidde Gowda had not allowed spraying of the new sample insecticide to his entire tomato crops spread across one acre, half of his crop produce survived, which according to Gowda was worth ₹15 lakh. However, with more than half an acre of tomato crops affected, Gowda said that he had suffered a loss of more than ₹20 lakh. He did not have crop insurance either,” Vasanth added.
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