Amid the wholesale price of onions slashed by 63 per cent at Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), a 68-years-old onion farmer, Rajendra Tukaram Chavan has travelled almost 70kms in order to auction his 512kg of onions, he harvested to the Solapur APMC.

During the auction, the farmer finally was able to sell his produce for just Re 1 per kg. Turakaram resides in Borgoan village of Barshi takula in Solapur district.

In the last two months, the average onion price went from Rs 1,850 per quintal on December 18, 2022, to Rs 675 on February 17, according to the reports.

Net profit on sale of onions: Rs 2.49

Taking notes from Chavan’s profit, he barely managed to get just Rs 2.49 after all the deductions. Moreover, he received the payment as a post-dated cheque for Rs 2, which he can encash only after 15 days. He could not even receive the remaining 49 paise as the bank transactions always are in round figures.

If the farmer wants to claim the remaining 40 paise, he has to directly take the amount from the trader. However, Chavan denied this proposal as he felt it is not that worthwhile.

Earned Rs 20 per kg in 2022

Chavan looked crestfallen while pointing out that he managed to earn Rs 20 per kg in 2022, he said, “I got Re 1 per kg for the onions. The APMC trader further deducted Rs 509.50 from the total amount of Rs 512 towards transportation charges, head-loading and weighing fees.”

Further, he said, “The price of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides has doubled in the past 3-4 years. I spent almost Rs 40,000 to grow just about 500kg of onions this time.”

Nasir Khalifa, owner of Surya Trader and a trader at Solapur APMC has explained the objective of issuing small cheques to the farmers, he said, “We have computerized the process of issuing receipts and cheques. As a result, Chavan’s cheque was post-dated. This is a common practice regardless of the amount on the cheque. We have issued cheques of such small amounts earlier too.”

‘Low-quality onions’

“The onions brought for auction were of low quality. Earlier, Chavan had brought high-quality onions that were sold at Rs 18 per kg. He later brought another batch, which fetched him Rs 14 per kg. Low-quality onions are usually not in demand,” he added.

The cheque was issued by one of his relatives from whose bank account Surya Traders-related transactions are done.

Taking notes on the quality of onion nowadays, the experts have said the farmers do not get more than 25 per cent of the high-quality products. Approx 30 per cent of the produce is of medium quality and the remaining is low grade.

Amidst the onion price dropped by 63 per cent at Nashik’s Lasalgaon APMC, the country’s largest onion mandi, several farmers like Chavan sell their produce in nickel and dimes because of the small shelf-life of the onions.

According to the APMC officials, the volume of onions arriving at Lasalgoan has been increased to 30,000 quintals a day.

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A letter to the government

Seeking immediate action, the Borgoan gram panchayat wrote a letter to the state government. The letter has urged compensation for the losses incurred by onion growers and an assured price for the product in future.

Moreover, the gram panchayat members have also threatened to sacrifice themselves if their concerns were not addressed. It’s already been almost two weeks; they haven’t received any response from the government yet.

While raising concerns over the issue, the Union Minister of State for health and family welfare Bharati Pawar, who is also the MP from Dindhori, has written to Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal and urged him to ensure National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (Nafed) increases onion procurement to help stabilize the wholesale prices.