Wholesale onion prices have dropped to Re 1 per kilo at the country’s largest wholesale market at Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) in Maharashtra. The prices have crashed nearly 91 per cent in the past couple of months from Rs 21.51 per kg on October 17 to Rs 1 per kg on December 24. The prices have crashed due to sudden rise in supply of summer onions in the market.
Wholesale onion prices have dropped to Re 1 per kilo at the country’s largest wholesale market at Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) in Maharashtra. The prices have crashed nearly 91 per cent in the past couple of months from Rs 21.51 per kg on October 17 to Rs 1 per kg on December 24. The prices have crashed due to sudden rise in supply of summer onions in the market.
The summer crop, harvested in March and April, has a storage life of about six months. Generally, the last batch of the summer crop reaches the market in mid-October, after which, the kharif onions takes over. But this year, farmers stocked the summer crop hoping for a better price later. However, low demand and glut in the market have kept the prices low and with arrival of new Kharif onions in the market the prices have crashed in the last few weeks.
The wholesale onion price had touched Re 1 in July last year and had dropped to 5 paisa per kg in 2016.
With crashing prices, farmers are finding it difficult to even recover the cost of transporting their produce to the market. To add to their woes, stocked onions have begun sprouting with the drop in minimum temperatures.
Last month, a farmer from Nashik, Sanjay Sathe, had sent Rs 1,064, which he earned after selling 750 kg of his onion crop in a wholesale market, to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) as a protest.
The farmer had said his intention was to prompt the government to take some steps to ease the financial stress that farmers were suffering because of the low prices.
The PMO had later returned the farmer's money order.
Another farmer from Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district, Shreyas Abhale, had sent a money order of Rs 6 to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as a mark of protest against the crashing prices of onion and the paltry returns.
Maharashtra government has announced a Rs 150 crore relief package to onion farmers.
The summer crop, harvested in March and April, has a storage life of about six months. Generally, the last batch of the summer crop reaches the market in mid-October, after which, the kharif onions takes over. But this year, farmers stocked the summer crop hoping for a better price later. However, low demand and glut in the market have kept the prices low and with arrival of new Kharif onions in the market the prices have crashed in the last few weeks.
The wholesale onion price had touched Re 1 in July last year and had dropped to 5 paisa per kg in 2016.
With crashing prices, farmers are finding it difficult to even recover the cost of transporting their produce to the market. To add to their woes, stocked onions have begun sprouting with the drop in minimum temperatures.
Last month, a farmer from Nashik, Sanjay Sathe, had sent Rs 1,064, which he earned after selling 750 kg of his onion crop in a wholesale market, to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) as a protest.
The farmer had said his intention was to prompt the government to take some steps to ease the financial stress that farmers were suffering because of the low prices.
The PMO had later returned the farmer's money order.
Another farmer from Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district, Shreyas Abhale, had sent a money order of Rs 6 to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as a mark of protest against the crashing prices of onion and the paltry returns.
Maharashtra government has announced a Rs 150 crore relief package to onion farmers.