Though some 50 traders, mostly from North India, have been camping here for the past month, they are transporting just 30 trucks daily against 100 in the last season, allegedly because the cold wave in the north has affected the demand. The prices paid, too, are a pittance between Rs 10 and Rs 15 every 20 kgs in comparison to Rs 50 in the last season though it's sold for five times as much elsewhere.

According to the farmers, they are caught in a no-win situation. ``There are no takers for our ripe tomatoes, not even the nationally renowned Kosindra variety, which is produced till March; the out-of-State traders buy the green ones as it takes two days to transport them to North India'', they say.

Heaps of rotting tomatoes greet the eye at the temporary markets in Chhataralya, Amadara, Kundanpur, Shalpura, Bodeli, Chalamadi and Kosindra; scores of farmers urge this reporter to help clear their produce at ``nominal prices''.

``We've been ruined'', says a worried Rajesh Patel, an MSU graduate who's taken up his family's traditional occupation at Bodeli. Shailesh Patel and Mukesh Patel, also from Bodeli, say they're apprehensive of not receiving even their basic returns. ``The traders are putting pressure on the market'', they allege, while Shirish Patel of Paladha village points out that it is the traders who decide the demand-supply balance.

This is the first time tomato prices have nosedived so low, they say. The implications are significant, since about 200,00,000 kg of the fruit is grown in 5,000 acres of land in this taluka between January and March.

``Farmers like me, who have five or more acres devoted exclusively to tomatoes, have to chuck at least 20,000 kg on alternate days'', says Kiran Patel of Rajkherva village. ``Only two truckloads are sent to the Surat and Vadodara markets everyday, while 30 trucks go out of the State''.

The traders don't deny demand has fallen drastically. According to Chetan Mahajan of Amritsar and Lajjuram of Rajasthan, prices have crashed as there are no takers for the fruit in North India.

But there is no support forthcoming for the farmers. Ajit Patel, assistant secretary of the Taluka Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee, Bodeli, and APMC Vadodara manager Suresh Patel admit that prices have fallen, but maintain that that's not the APMC's fault. ``We come into the picture only after the produce comes to the mandi. We can't do anything about surplus produce'', they say.

Fortunately for the farmers, however, the story does not end here. Plans are afoot to float an exclusive forum for tomato farmers. K R Shah of the Active Cotton Producers' Forum says there are also plans for a tomato-processing industry.

But while Shah, Sankheda MLA Babarbhai Tadavi and State Agriculture Minister Nitin Patel say they're aware of the surplus production and the farmers' plight, there are no time-bound action solution packages in the offing.