At Rs 3 per kg, onion continues to bring tears to farmers; wholesale price plummets by over 40 pc in 28 days, retail unaffected

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Karam Prakash

New Delhi, March 11

In a month’s time, the wholesale price of Onions plummeted up to 40 per cent in the country. Consequent upon that onion cultivators are either destroying the crop or burn them in their fields itself.

As per the price monitoring division of the Department of Consumers Affairs, the wholesale price in Nashik (Maharashtra), where the largest wholesale market in the Asia of onion is situated, dropped from Rs 1,450 per quintal (100 kgs), on February 1, to Rs 685 on February 28.

And all this — a decline of 47 per cent happened in just 28 days. In Chandigarh, the price dropped from Rs 2,500 per quintal to Rs 1,450 during the same period.

Ironically, unlike wholesale prices, retail prices of onion in the country are witnessing only a slight drop.

As per the government data, Onion was selling at Rs 23 per Kg in Nashik while farmers were selling at Rs 14.50. The consumers were getting onion Rs 20 per kg on February 28 when the wholesale price dropped to Rs 6.85 per kg. Onion farmers said that they were selling at Rs 3-6 per kg at wholesale while the consumers were getting around Rs 27 per kg at the same time. In the national capital, the retail price of the onion dropped only by Rs 3 between February 1 and 28.

Devinder Sharma, an expert on agriculture economics, said that this bloodbath (drastic decline in wholesale prices) had further pushed the farmers into distress as they could not even recover the input cost of their produce. “This (current scenario of the market) proves that only middlemen are making money in this bloodbath. Even in the organised sector, big online companies and retail outlets, which the government claims to reduce the retail price as they directly purchase from farmers — and not from the middlemen — are selling onion between Rs 24- 35 per Kg,” said

Sharma – who believes that this farm-to-flop plight of farmers is visible throughout the county.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has said, in a statement, that NAFED immediately had swung into action and started the procurement on February 24 and was reported to have purchased around 4000 MT at a rate above Rs.900/quintal from the farmers directly over the last ten days. The agriculture ministry claimed that they had opened 40 procurement centres where farmers could sell their stock and get their payment online.

Wholesale price (Feb 1) Wholesale price (Feb 28)

Delhi Rs 1,350 -Rs 1,100

Chandigarh Rs 2,500-Rs 1450

Nashik (Maharashtra) Rs 1,450-Rs 765

Patna (Bihar) Rs 1,900-Rs 1,500

Rates in quintal per kg

Retail price (Feb 1) Retail price (Feb 28)

New Delhi Rs 30 -Rs 27

Chandigarh Rs 30-Rs 25

Nashik Rs 23-Rs 20

Patna Rs 23-Rs 20