Onion Growers Association preparing report for national-level policy
Summer onion yield on nearly 30,000 hectares of land has been damaged due to unseasonal rain and fluctuating weather
PUNE: As the Maharashtra State Onion Growers Association and onion farmers across the state are facing a financial crisis due to the drop in onion rates, the organisation is now preparing a report on various issues related to onion farming which will be submitted to the central and state governments next month. While there are lakhs of onion farmers in the state, especially in the three main districts of Nashik, Ahmednagar and Pune; followed by Dhule, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Beed, Solapur and other districts, the summer onion yield on nearly 30,000 hectares of land has been damaged due to unseasonal rain and fluctuating weather in the last couple of months and is going to be sold at very low rates.
Bharat Dighole, president of the Maharashtra State Onion Growers Association, said, “The onion farmers were not united for a long period and so, we formed this association. Also, there is no national-level policy related to onion farming; its production and sale across the country and abroad. Currently, we get Rs800 per quintal on an average but our demand is that we should get more than Rs2,000 per quintal. We are now preparing a detailed report on issues faced by onion farmers and how they do not get the desired rates in the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) markets across the country. We are going to submit this report to the central as well as state governments and even political parties in the opposition.”
“The main issue is that of the per quintal rate given to farmers. We are not getting the rates desired which should be given by traders at the APMCs or the state government. Due to unseasonal rain in the month of April, farmers have sold onion at very low rates, incurring heavy losses. There are various reasons behind not getting the proper rate; farmers are only able to grow the onions but they are not adequately equipped to sell them. The entire system right from getting the onion from the farmers to selling it at the APMC market is wrong and farmers are suffering due to it,” Dighole said.
There are around 4 lakh onion farmer-members of the Onion Growers Association from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan. Onion farmers build their own sheds called ‘Kanda Chal’ in their farms to store onions. While the state government gives a maximum subsidy of Rs87,500, the cost of building these sheds is far greater than the subsidy provided. The major onion crop is during the Rabbi season which starts in November and between March and May, the onions are harvested and stored in these sheds. Later in August, the farmers begin selling the stored onion to get better rates per quintal in the APMC markets.
