Maharashtra government offers Rs 200 a quintal, onion farmers call it paltry

MUMBAI/NASHIK: The Maharashtra government on Thursday decided to give relief to loss-making onion farmers by extending an ex-gratia payment of Rs 200 per quintal, an amount farmers in the onion-growing region of Nashik immediately rejected as paltry while demanding four to five times as much.
"The ex-gratia amount means nothing to us. Nashik farmers will boycott it," said Sanjay Sathe, the onion farmer who had sent the PMO a money order of Rs 1,064, his earnings from the sale of 750 quintals of onions.
The farmers demanded at least Rs 800 per quintal for all onion growers."Moreover, the grant should continue till the average wholesale onion prices crosses Rs 1,000 per quintal in the wholesale market," a farmer said.
The state cabinet on Thursday approved a Rs 150 crore budget to enable the payment of Rs 200 per quintal. "The decision will be applicable in the case of all onions sold between November 1 and December 15 in all the APMC markets except Navi Mumbai. The maximum relief will be given on 200 quintals of onion sold for a farmer, which means the distressed farmer will at least get Rs 40,000 amount in their account," said a senior official from the marketing department.
Onion farmers have been protesting since November over the low price their produce has been fetching.
The average rate of kharif onions in the market was between Rs 750 and Rs 850, compared to between Rs 2,200 and Rs 2,300 last year.
Several reasons have been given for the crash, from hoarding of summer onions to reduced demand from nearby states like MP and Karnataka. In the 45 days from November 1 to December 15, 75 lakh quintals of onion were brought to AMPCs across the state. Farmers who sent these onions are eligible for relief.
The farmer fraternity said not many had sold onions between November 1 and December 15 since the prices were crashing. A farmer from Ahmednagar district, Shreyas Abhale, had sent a money order of Rs 6 to CM Devendra Fadnavis after selling 2,657 kg of onions at a rate of Rs 1 per kg at the Sangamner wholesale market. He had said that after adjusting market expenses, he was left with only Rs 6.
In a related development, over 300 onion farmers staged a three-hour sit-in agitation at the Nampur Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) in Satana taluka of the district on Thursday. The farmers were unhappy that the traders were not giving them sale receipt after buying the produce at a paltry amount of Rs 1 per kg.