Amaravati, Jan 14 (IANS): In an effort to rescue tomato farmers suffering from steep price fluctuations, Andhra Pradesh's agricultural marketing department will bid and purchase tomatoes from Friday.

"The marketing department will aggressively participate in bidding and purchase tomatoes from Friday," said marketing department commissioner P.S. Pradyumna.

By participating in the bidding, the department aims to create competition for the prices to improve.

"The department of agricultural marketing is continuously monitoring the prices of agricultural commodities through CM app on a daily basis," said Pradyumna.

He said the department participated in bidding and auction of the kitchen staple from December 21 to 28 when the village agriculture assistant reported a fall in tomato prices on the CM app.

Pradyumna said that the department intervened to purchase 24 tonnes of tomatoes in December.

However, when the prices stabilized, the department ceased the intervention which it will resume from Friday as a few more villages are reporting very low tomato prices.

It is not uncommon for tomato farmers to dump their produce by the roadside in the southern state when prices plummet to very low prices, resulting in not even recovering the investment.