The shutdown of Kpalungu Tomatoes, a tomato paste factory located in the Upper East Region, is making life difficult for tomato farmers.This has affected prices and purchase of tomatoes making life unbearable for tomato farmers especially in the northern regions.Meanwhile, concerned farmers in the country are pleading with the government to come to their aid, as their major source of survival faces collapse.Joy News correspondent, Albert Sory said the factory is one of the major buyers of tomatoes from the farmers.He mentioned communities like Kpalungu, Bongo, Nyariga, Tumu and Via as areas most affected by the shut down.He said some frustrated farmers who shared their grievances with him said the news broke to them as a shock when they had arrived to deliver their produce to the company since they had bargain with them already and were fully assured of their payment.“Our products are spoiling as each day passes by” due to unavailability of storage facility, they added.According to them, they were informed by the handlers of the factory that vacuum pump which is responsible for pumping out water from tomatoes during production had broken down.Operations Manager of the company, Mr. Kwabena Darkwa, although sympathized, he stated “...I Don’t know when the problem will be fixed.”He said the tomato paste factory has not been able to purchase tomatoes this season because of the problems facing it, and hoped it would be solved soon.