Farmers ask govt to purchase onions from them at Rs 20 per kg to avoid financial distress

The Maharashtra State Onion Producers Farmer Association wants the Centre to direct Nafed and state governments to directly purchase onions from farmers at `20 per kg in order to help them overcome financial distress. Bharat Dighole, founder president of the association, pointed out that onion trade has come to standstill because of the spread of coronavirus. Initially the incessant monsoons, then the export ban, followed by restrictions on onion trade have caused huge losses for farmers, he said.

The lockdown has affected prices to such an extent that wholesale prices of onions have dropped to Rs 5-8 per kg, he said. Moreover, many market committees are either not functioning due to the Covid-19 or are doing minimal business. Lack of arrivals has become common in several mandis, he said.

At present, harvesting of the summer crop is in full swing and farmers are forced to store their onions on the field and these may get destroyed due to unseasonal rains, he warned. Dighole said he would approach Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Prakash Javdekar and Piyush Goyal on this issue.

Lasalgaon and Pimpalgaon APMCs have restricted auction of onions to around 800 to 1000 vehicles per day and are also working from 9 am to 1 pm daily, in view of the lockdown due to the Covid-10 pandemic, officials at Lasalgaon APMC said. Due to the labour problem and the use of gunny bags, it becomes easier to manage crowds if the vehicles are restricted, he said.

However, the smaller onion markets, including Kalwan, Satana, Nampur, Umrane, Satana, Chandvad, Yeola, Vinchur and Niphad, have limited their auctions to 250 vehicles per day while following the 9 am-1 pm timings.
Farmers who wish to sell their produce have been asked to get their names registered with contact numbers with the APMCs a day prior to the auction. The APMCs will keep them informed about the status of the auction.

“We are facing problems in implementing the social distancing norm and shortage of workers. Hence, we have restricted auctioning of onions up to certain number of vehicles to avoid farmers crowding the markets,” officials said.

Around 700 to 1,000 vehicles carrying onions arrive at the Lasalgaon APMC while 200 to 500 vehicles come in at other APMCs in the district. The Lasalgaon APMC officials said that another reason for imposing restrictions is the drop in demand of onions. According to officials, the demand has reduced to a great extent in domestic markets.

Besides, transporting and unloading of onions is a headache and parties from various states are not making payments until their stock of onions is sold. On Thursday around 18,577 quintals of onion arrived at Lasalgaon with modal prices touching Rs 750 per quintal.