Nashik: Krishna Dongre, an onion farmer in Nashik’s Yeola taluka, set ablaze 125 quintals of his 1.5-acre crop on Monday. Dongre said he decided to set his produce on fire because he knew he would not be able to get the right price for onions at the local Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC). According to TOI, Dongre said that he had planted onions on 1.5 acres in Matulthan village and spent over Rs 1.5 lakh to increase the yield.
Dongre said, ‘My crop was ready for harvesting, but I would have to employ agricultural laborers to harvest it. This would have cost me an additional Rs 35,000. Then comes the cost of transporting onions to the wholesale market. Looking at the prices of onions in the wholesale market, I am not even able to recover the cost of laborers harvesting the crop. So, I set the crop on fire.’
Grant needed for onion farmers
He further said, ‘The wholesale prices of onions have fallen. At present, most of the farmers are getting between Rs 2 to Rs 4 per kg for onions. The state government needs to give a subsidy of Rs 1,500-2,000 per quintal to those onion farmers who have sold their produce in the last year.
Farmers are unable to recover even the cost of production
The average wholesale price of onion in APMC has fallen from Rs 18 per kg on December 26, 2022, to Rs 5 per kg in the district now. Bharat Dighole, president of the Maharashtra Onion Producers Association, said that it costs at least Rs 18 to grow one kilogram of onion, but farmers are unable to recover even the cost of production.
Government should buy our land: Farmer
Residents of Malwadi village in Deola taluka held a meeting on Monday and decided to request the government to buy their fields. The farmers here grow onions and other vegetables, but they are not able to recover their production cost. Sandeep Bachav, a farmer, said, “The village has 534 hectares of agricultural land and 90% of the farmers here grow onions. We are hopeless and burdened with heavy debts. We want the government to buy our land.
