As protests erupt, govt forms panel to rein in onion prices

Govt is also expected to announce subsidy next week; farmer threatens suicide

MUMBAI: Amid the falling prices of late kharif season onions, which have led to huge losses for farmers, a spate of protests erupted on Saturday. Farmers from Lasalgaon, India’s biggest onion market, Pimpalgaon and Chandwad blocked the Ahmednagar-Pune highway and also demonstrated outside government offices, demanding quick government intervention.

The despair of farmers is clear from the forms of protest. While a farmer from Andarmul wrote a letter in blood to chief minister Eknath Shinde, inviting him for the “Holi of Onions” on Monday, 145 farmers from Chandwad tehsil in Nashik have written to the President of India, seeking permission to end their lives.

Khanderao Somvanshi, one of the 145, has decided to not harvest his five-acre onion crop to avoid the additional input cost to the ₹4 lakh he has already invested by borrowing from banks and selling his tractor. Somvanshi owns 22 acres of land in Rahud in Chandwad.

“Harvesting the crop will take at least ₹70,000 more, and even if I take the crop to the market, I will not get more than ₹2 lakh,” he told HT.

The Maharashtra government has appointed a committee under Sunil Pawar, former marketing director of the state, to suggest the steps to be taken to offer respite to the farmers. “The committee is expected to submit its report by Wednesday, following which the announcement of the subsidy will be done,” said an official. “The issue is related to the late kharif season, which will last only this month. Once the summer season crop is out next month, the demand and procurement price will both go up. Until then, the government will have to bear the cost of the subsidy, which is expected to be around ₹75 crore.”

The state government has announced that it will procure onion stocks through the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED). The farmers, however, have complained that the centres should be within the APMCs so that the farmers can sell off their produce at competitive prices. Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said in the assembly on Thursday that NAFED would be directed to set up more centres inside APMC. Until Friday evening, NAFED had procured 1,600 metric tonnes of onions from farmers.

According to state government directives, NAFED has set up a few centres but the farmers are still choosing private traders to sell their produce. The traders in APMC pay them on the spot against the three to four days taken by government agencies. Government agencies mandate specific grading of the product.

HT PHOTOS Farmers from Lasalgaon, India’s biggest onion market, and Pimpalgaon blocked the Ahmednagar-Pune highway.

HT PHOTO 53-year old farmer Khanderao Somvanshi said, “there would be no option left but to die by suicide if no respite is given by the government.”