TomTato takes its place in lexicon and dish

Neil Ray Creation of a new word is no fluke. It has a purpose to serve. When the existing stock in the lexicon does no longer prove adequate for the purpose, a word is born. An occasion has just arisen for the birth of a word. The newest member of the vocabulary is TomTato (at least this is how this word has been spelled). It is a combination of tomato and potato. And the occasion is the successful commercialisation of a plant that has been developed by grafting the two plants together. In New Zealand, they have christened it as Potato Tom. Call it by whatever name you like, the fact remains that this single plant yields both tomato and potato. Wonder of wonders both produces ripen at the same time. A plant gives about 500 cherry tomatoes and its roots produce beautiful white potatoes but its quantity is not known. A hybrid plant, TomTato can be grown indoors or outdoors provided that it is given a space of a 40 litre bag or pot. For purposes of commercialisation already a juicy name has been given to the gardening practice, "Veg plot in a pot". In New Zealand, the plant has hit the market for a week but in Britain it was introduced last Thursday. The UK-based gardening firm, Thompson and Morgan, has started selling the plant for $ 24. The New Zealand price is not available yet. It seems the pioneers' experiment with the plant for the past 15 years has been rewarded well. Now it has to be ascertained if this horticultural effort remains confined only to a gardening hobby for a few people or it stands any chance of mass cultivation or commercial production. If commercially viable, there is no reason why farmers will not fancy for the dual crops from the same plant. Five hundred sweet potatoes from a single plant! It sounds quite productive. Then the yields from the roots as well! Per square foot yield is likely to be more than if the plant just gave only tomato or potato. No animal other than man has brought about radical changes to Nature. He has cultivated corns from wild plants, tasty vegetables and fruits as well as trees that produce good timber. He has also domesticated wild animals in order to get maximum benefit from them. In this way, the world of flora and fauna has undergone a highly selective process, making this planet look like what it does now. Long before the idea of genetically modified crops came into vogue, people knew how to develop high yielding varieties. Grafting, tissue culture and selected pollination etc., have all gone into developing improved varieties of plants. Farmers in this part of the world have long known the art of grafting lemon, plum and mango branches in order to produce fruits of different shapes, sizes, colours and tastes from the same tree. Yet the idea of getting potato and tomato plants grafted so successfully did not occur a long time before. But people here unsuccessfully tried to graft pumpkin and bottle gourd together to have both vegetables from the same plant. Maybe, the species are unlike each other. But then do tomato and potato have anything common? No they do not. People behind the grafting of the two plants have readily admitted that the task proved daunting because the tomato and potato stems had to be of the same thickness to work the miracle. Now that it has become a reality, let's celebrate it because this shows the way of meeting food challenges of the future.