The trouble seems to be far from over for onion farmers in Maharashtra. After the recent hailstorm, they are now battling a heat wave, which is causing their crop to shrivel.
The sudden surge in temperature has forced many of them to harvest their crop at least fortnight earlier, resulting in reduced bulb sizes, said Nanasaheb Dattaji Patil, chairman, Lasalgaon agriculture market produce committee, Nashik, the country’s biggest onion trading centre.
?Farmers have already been staring at losses as a result of the recent hailstorm. Of the total of 47,000-odd hectares that sowed onion crop, panchnamas have been conducted for 41,000 hectares that have been directly affected and the remaining area has been affected by the karpa disease,? he explained. Instead of normal yield of 150 quintals per acre, the yield per acre has dropped to 50-60 quintals, he said.
The production of rabi onion, which was 6.04 lakh tonne in 2012-13, is likely to be slashed by about 50% to 2.94 lakh tonne in the current season, officials of the state agriculture department said. “Only half of the total produce will be of good quality. This will badly affect the export, since Maharashtra accounts for 70% of the total onion sent out. About 50% of this is produced in Nashik district alone,” senior officials said.
According to Patil, ?A clear picture will emerge in a month’s time when the entire rabi crop will be harvested. Although arrivals may not be impacted since this is harvesting time, the total output could be affected to the tune of 50-75%.? Moreover, since other states including Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh are also harvesting the rabi onion at this time of the year, it remains to be seen if this damage could be compensated from the yield at these states since they were not affected by either hailstorms or temperatures, he said.
Model prices at Lasalgaon touched Rs 825 per quintal on Monday with 18,000 quintals arriving in the market. RP Gupta, director, National Horticulture Research and Development Foundation ( NHRDF), said the yield in the state could be affected to the tune of 10-15% because of the heat. ?Around 75-80% of the bulb is ready and another 10-15 days more is required for the bulb to mature. However, the bulb sizes have been restricted due to temperatures because of which farmers have had to harvest their crop earlier,? he explained. In the northern parts of the country, maximum temperatures are around 30 degrees celsius and similar temperatures are being witnessed in other states as well unlike Maharashtra.
Gupta said each state has its own rabi crop and therefore in the next two to four months, the onion feed will continue from different parts of the country and this is likely to compensate the shortage from Maharashtra.