The Centre announced a ‘Tomato Grand Challenge’ hackathon on Friday amidst the controversy regarding sky-high prices of tomatoes across the country.
The government in a press release explained that this challenge is to encourage people to share ideas for helping the government ensure the availability of tomatoes in the cities where prices have shot up and to also help the farmers get fair prices for their produce.
Who set up the ‘Tomato Grand Challenge’ hackathon?
Secretary of Department of Consumer Affairs, Rohit Kumar Singh announced the ‘Tomato Grand Challenge’ hackathon today. Reportedly it has been the result of the collaboration between the Ministry of Education(innovation cell) along with the Department of Consumer Affairs.
What is the TGC hackathon all about?
According to the press release sent out by the government, the challenge "invites ideas on comprehensive and focused area interventions in tomato value chain - from cropping and market insights for the farmers, appropriate cultivars (OP varieties or hybrids) with higher shelf-life of the fruits for fresh marker, cultivars specifically suitable for processing, value-addition through interventions that can increase shelf-life, improve transportation of fresh and processing products, innovative packaging and storage".
The Centre invited students, research scholars and faculty members, and industry individuals, Indian start-ups, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs), and professionals to participate in the hackathon and share their innovative ideas.
It is also mentioned that experts will be evaluating the winning ideas and it will be followed by “prototype development and field implementation for ensuring its usability and scalability on a large scale and price of the product.”
Where to apply for the TGC hackathon?
The government has notified that the eager participants should apply in the government portal - https://doca.gov.in/gtc/index.php to share their ideas.
Why are tomato prices rising?
The late onset of monsoon and the occurrence of cyclone like Biparjoy has affected the harvesting of tomatoes in several places of the country. But both the government officials and vendors have assured that this would be a temporal issue and once the harvesting starts in other areas the prices will soon drop. In Bengaluru, the tomato prices went up to Rs 120 per kg and nearly 100 in Delhi and other major cities. The Price Monitoring Division database under the Department of Consumer Affairs reveals that tomato prices have increased from Rs 25 to Rs 41 in the retail markets, reportedly.
