Amid steep price hike, Indian govt announces Tomato Grand Challenge Hackathon

New Delhi, 1st July 2023: Today, the Central Government announced a ‘Tomato Grand Challenge hackathon.’ The Centre invited students, research scholars, teachers, industries, start-ups, and professionals to participate in the new contest and submit innovative ideas for lowering tomato prices, which are currently priced at 80-100 per kg. Union Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh stated in a press release that the ideas might focus on the tomato value chain to assure its availability to customers at cheap costs while also helping farmers gain value for their crops.

The challenge seeks proposals for comprehensive and focused area interventions in the tomato value chain, ranging from cropping and market insights for farmers to appropriate cultivars (OP varieties or hybrids) with higher shelf-life of the fruits for fresh marker, cultivars specifically suitable for processing, and value-addition through interventions that can increase shelf-life, among other things.

Students, Research Scholars, and Faculty Members, as well as Industry people, Indian start-ups, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Limited Liability Partnership (LLPs), and Professionals, are invited to participate in the hackathon. The government announced that the winning ideas will be evaluated by experts followed by prototype development and field implementation for ensuring its usability/scalability on a large scale and the price of the product.

The Grand Challenge has been formulated by the Department of Consumer Affairs in collaboration with Education Ministry’s Innovation Cell. Interested participants can apply on the portal – https://doca.gov.in/gtc/index.php.