At a time when onion farmers of the drought-prone Chitradurga district were hoping to get better prices for their yield, the continued ban on export of onions of the variety they grow has dashed their hopes.
Chitradurga district, which suffered successive droughts for the past seven years, received some good rainfall this year resulting in better crop yield for onion. Damages to the onion crop in flood-hit districts of Maharashtra and north Karnataka had also kindled hopes among them of a better price after a long gap.
However, even as the farmers of Chitradurga district (which is the largest onion growing district in central Karnataka) were dreaming of good returns for their yield, the shocker came from the Centre in the form of ban on export.
Although Chitradurga has an APMC yard, the farmers are dependent on the APMC yard at Yeshwantpur in Bengaluru for a better price. Chitradurga, Challakere and Hiriyur taluks have the largest onion growing areas and the yield is usually exported to Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka through the Yeshwantpur APMC yard.
State general secretary of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sanga, T.N. Shankarappa, said: “Very rarely, once in 10 or 15 years, farmers get an opportunity to make some money by selling their agricultural produce. But now, their dreams have been shattered with the ban on export of onions. The Union government has done injustice to them.”
No storage facilities
Despite being a big producer of onion, Chitradurga district lacks proper storage facility for the crop. Most of the farmers store the crop in gunny bags in their houses. An official of APMC, Chitradurga, confirmed that there was no separate warehouse to store onions.
Meanwhile, lack of good prices for onions has brought down cultivation in the district and farmers are forced to migrate in search of job. The district had 17,560 onion farmers in 2016-17. It came down to 17,025 in 2018-19 and during the current fiscal, it reduced to 10,782.
P.P. Kallesh of Paledahalli in Hosadurga taluk is among the distraught onion farmers. “I was planning to clear my loans. I thought I will be better off for a year. Now with the ban, it’s the same old story,” he told The Hindu .
