Comments
If onion prices brought tears to common people two months ago, the bulb is making its cultivators in Gujarat spend sleepless nights as its prices have tumbled by ten times within this period: from Rs 2,755 per quintal to just Rs 250 !
Predictably, onion farmers in the Saurashtra region have gone the way potato farmers from Banaskantha went two years back. Quintals of onion were thrown away on the streets of Kotada Sangani taluka of Rajkot district on Monday by the farmers as prices dipped.
In Rajkot district, wholesale price of onion tumbled to the lowest of Rs 2.50 a kg. Farmers claim the prices to be one of the lowest in the country. Prices have fallen from the peak of Rs 49.05 a kg in October 2013, reported at Gondal APMC in Rajkot district.
“Prices have fallen to the lowest in the country. Farmers are unable to recover even the sowing costs from the sale of onion. Therefore, farmers from Kotada Sangani taluka threw onions on the road as a mark of protest against such low prices,” said Chandu Vaghasia, director of Gondal APMC and former NCP MLA.
According to National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF) data, onion prices hit the maximum price of Rs 4,950 a quintal at Gondal APMC on October 22 with arrivals of 7,200 quintals. However, on February 2, 2014, prices fell to as low as Rs 255 a quintal with arrivals of 7,604 quintals.
“Arrivals continue to be high at the markets. And due to bumper crop expectation this year, farmers fear prices to remain low,” said Vaghasia. An official said onion has been sown in 72,000 hectare across Gujarat, mostly in the Saurashtra region, this season, compared to just 14,000 hectare last rabi season.
According to Vaghasia, for every bigha of onion sown, it costs around Rs 20,000-25,000. Whereas at such low price levels, farmers get only around Rs 10,000 per bigha, thereby incurring losses to the tune of Rs 15,000 per bigha.
“We demand support price for onion at Rs 200-250 per 20 kg or Rs 10 per kg for farmers. We will formally submit a memorandum to the state government in this regard,” he said.
In the second half of the last year, onion prices hit the roof at Rs 50-60 a kg in wholesale markets, and Rs 100 per kg in retail. This attracted large number of farmers to cash on the root crop.
In Gujarat alone, rabi onion sowing has jumped by over 400 per cent against last year.
Nationally, onion sowing during 2012-13 is estimated to be at 992,000 hectares. Last year, the production was registered at 16.8 million tonnes, while this fiscal onion production is likely to hover around 19 million tonnes.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.