Onion Farmers Suspended Auction with Demands of Higher Rates

Nursery Today Desk

New Delhi: On Thursday, wholesale markets in the Nashik region of Maharashtra suspended onion auctions as farmers staged a protest demanding a minimum price of Rs 2,410 per quintal for their crop, as set by the National Cooperative Agricultural Marketing Federation.

After a three-day walkout by traders and commission agents against the central government’s 40% export duty on onions was put off, it was the first day of the auction.

According to Balasaheb Kshirsagar, head of the wholesale market in Lasalgaon in the Niphad taluka, farmers objected a price that traders had offered, they wished Lasalgaon to house a NAFED procurement center. Although a procurement center has been authorized, it has not yet begun to function.

Following a walkout by traders and commission agents earlier this week, the national government declared it would purchase 2 lakh tonnes of onions from Nashik and Ahmednagar. NAFED has set a price of Rs 2,410.75 per quintal for Nashik. The procurement is to be held in seven districts—Nashik, Ahmednagar, Beed, Osmanabad, Dhule, Pune and Aurangabad.

500 tonnes of onions were purchased by NAFED, which has been successful in restarting 13 centers in Nashik, as of Wednesday.

Farmers urged that NAFED be a party to the trade in the market during a meeting with the district collector, according to Bharat Dighole, head of the Onion Growers Association. Farmers will be guaranteed better pricing if NAFED enters the market, but having separate procurement centers for NAFED defeats the objective, he claimed. Dighole added that the farmers will not permit Nashik onion auctions unless their demand was granted.

Due to the double whammy of lower-than-expected acreage and quality issues, onion prices in the nation have skyrocketed. The quality of onions that were stored was impacted in March and April by unseasonal rain and hail. When prices fell in April and May, many farmers were forced to turn to distress sales.