Dongre said he decided to set his produce on fire as he knew he would not be able to get the right price for the onions at the local agriculture produce market committee (APMC).
Dongre said he had planted onions on 1.5 acres in Matulthan village, and had spent more than Rs 1.5 lakh to grow the produce.
“My crop was ready to harvest. But I would have had to engage farm workers to harvest the same. It would have cost me an additional Rs 35,000. Then there is the cost to transport the onions to the wholesale market. Given the prevailing wholesale onion prices, I would not have recovered even the cost of the harvest workers. Therefore, I set ablaze the crop,” said Dongre.
“The wholesale prices have crashed. At present, most farmers are getting between Rs 2 to and Rs 4 per kg for onions. The state government needs to give a grant of Rs 1,500-2,000 per quintal to the onion farmers who have sold their produce in the past year,” he added.
The average wholesale onion price in the APMCs has dropped from Rs 18 per kg on December 26, 2022, to Rs 5 per kg now in the district. Bharat Dighole, the president of the Maharashtra Onion Growers’ Association, said it costs at least Rs 18 to grow each kilogram. But farmers are unable to recover even the production cost.
Malwadi farmers want govt to buy their land
Residents of the Malwadi village in Deola taluka on Monday held a meeting and decided to request the government to buy their farmlands. Farmers here grow onions and other vegetables, but they are unable to recover their production costs.
Sandip Bachhav, a farmer, said: “The village has 534 hectare of farmland and 90% of the farmers here grow onions. We are frustrated and burdened with huge loans. We want the government to buy our farmlands.”
Onion parcel sent to PM
Some farmers from Ahmednagar have sent onions by post to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking relief from dropping prices.
“We want the Union government to immediately lift the ban on the export of onions and other agricultural produce. This will help open up the international market for farmers,” one farmer said.
– With PTI inputs
source
The post is published through a syndicated feed and attributed to Times Of India
