Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMC) are dominated by men. In Lasalgaon, Asia’s biggest onion market, this is no exception. Not surprisingly, arhtiyas (commission agents), traders and even farmers were agitated to witness women participating in the onion auction bid. The auction was stopped and traders decided to boycott the auction, but the women refused to buckle under the pressure to withdraw and finally women-led Krishi Sadhana Agriculture Produce Co-operative Society procured onions for NAFED.

For the last couple of days Lasalgaon market has witnessed a commotion. On Thursday, Sadhana Jadhav, director of Krishi Sadhana Society came to Lasalgaon market to participate in the auction and purchase onion for NAFED. The society is the nodal agency appointed by NAFED. The local traders were unhappy with the move and they decided to boycott the auction. “Traders decided to withdraw from the auction saying that our society is not a member of the local traders association. But there is no law that you must be a member of the association to participate in the auction. It’s painful that men are opposing our society this way” Sadhana Jadhav told local media. Jadhav kept telling APMC officials that NAFED has appointed their society as a nodal agency.

The society again participated in an auction on Friday. The APMC officials and traders had no other option than to allow the society to participate in the auction after Jadhav presented all the documents. APMC chairperson Suvarna Jagtap claimed that the society was not stopped from participating in the auction because it is a women’s society. Jagtap said that there were some “ technical” issues that had to be resolved. She added that out of 321 arhtiyas at Lasalgaon APMC, 107 are women and out of 335 registered traders, 71 are women.

However, Lasalgaon APMC has not seen any women participating in auctions. Jagtap says, “women work through their representatives”. But this picture is not exclusive to Lasalgaon. Women farmer Madhuri Khadse narrates that how men operating in APMC take every possible effort to make things uncomfortable for women farmers and traders. Trading licenses are issued in the name of women but their husband run the show in the market says Madhuri.

As per Census 2011, the extent of women's participation in agriculture as cultivators (main and marginal) is to the tune of 3.60 crore (30.33 per cent). As agricultural labourers (main and marginal), it is about 6.15 crore (42.67 per cent). But when it comes to trading, women go missing from the scene, says Fulabai Kokane a farm labourer.

“ There is nexus between APMC officials, traders and middlemen. They don’t allow others to be part of the auction. This helps them to manipulate price and exploit farmers. You raise a voice against them and nobody will buy your produce,” say farmers.

Lasalgoan Traders Association has said that traders associations exist in all APMCs and what happened at Lasalgaon was an issue related to whom NAFED has authorized to purchase onion.

Krishi Sadhana Society has started purchasing onion at Lasalgaon, but its members know that there is a long battle ahead.

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