While farmers in rain-fed areas of the State are struggling to come to terms with the crisis due to drought-induced crop failure, the small farmers, who managed to get a successful onion crop in summer with the help of borewells, are literally in tears as the prices of their produce have crashed.
The summer onion prices have sharply dropped from the range of Rs. 1,200-1,500 per quintal in January this year to Rs. 400-500 a quintal now. In fact, onion growers had got Rs. 2,500- 5,000 in October-November last year for their monsoon crop.
What is ironic is that there are no buyers for a large quantum of produce even at the above price range of Rs. 1,200-1,500. This has resulted in heaps of onion produce remaining unsold at the Raichur Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) yard.
“We have spent around Rs. 25,000 for cultivating onion on one acre. We got better crop this year both in terms of quality and yield. Unfortunately, there is no good price in the market. Wholesale buyers are asking the crop for a throwaway price. How can we survive?” asked Hanumayya, a farmer from Sasivegera village in Deodurg taluk.
His produce in 45 bags, each having 50 kg of fine quality onion, has remained unsold at the APMC for the last two days. “I have decided to sell the produce at whatever price the buyer asks,” he added.
Most of the onion growers in the AMPC yard were in a similar condition as onion is a perishable agricultural produce and there was no hope of recovery of price in the immediate future. They were left with no option other than selling their produce at whatever price they get as they cannot take their crop back to their villages incurring additional transportation costs. They sleep beside their onion heaps in open protecting their crop from pigs and cattle.
According to the traders, glut in the market caused by heavy imports from Nashik in Maharashtra caused the dip in the price of onion. “The traders are heavily importing onion from Nashik. Supply is greater than the demand. This caused the prices to crash,” Nagaraj, a trader, said.
Chamarasa Malipatil, state president of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, expressed similar views. According to him, the government imported onion from different countries when the onion prices were high in the domestic market.
“Massive imports, much greater than the required quantity, has caused the glut in the market. Now, domestic farmers have to bear the brunt. Farmers are in a very pathetic condition as they are repeatedly hit hard by problems— floods, drought, Bt cotton failure and now price crash," he said. He demanded that the government open onion procurement centres at APMCs and purchase the produce directly from farmers offering minimum support price.
