NCP MLAs on Tuesday reached Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha carrying onions on their head in the wake of dropping price of the vegetable. They are demanding an appropriate price for onions.
The price per kilogram of onion came down from Rs 4 to Rs 2, which angered the growers prompting them to stage protests.
Record low of onions' price fumes farmers
In the wake of a consistent drop in onion prices, angry farmers stopped the auction of the key kitchen staple on Monday at Maharashtra's Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), Asia's biggest onion market.
The agitation was called off in the evening on the assurance of a solution given by Nashik district guardian minister Dada Bhuse.
A representative of the onion growers said the government should immediately declare a grant of Rs 1,500 per quintal of onions and purchase their produce at Rs 15 to Rs 20 per kg, or else they will not let the auction resume at the Lasalgaon APMC, located in Nashik district.
As soon as the auction process began as the market opened for the week on Monday, onions fetched a minimum price of Rs 200 per quintal, a maximum rate of Rs 800 per quintal and an average price of Rs 400-450 per quintal.
As a result, the angry farmers led by the Maharashtra Rajya Kanda Utpadak Sanghatana (MRKUS) stopped the auction of onions and started an agitation.
On Saturday 2,404 quintals of onions arrived at the APMC and the prices were Rs 351 minimum, Rs 1,231 maximum and Rs 625 average per quintal.
"During the ongoing Budget Session of the state legislature, the government should immediately declare Rs 1,500 per quintal grant for onions, and purchase the crop, currently sold for Rs 3 to Rs 5 per kg, for Rs 15 to Rs 20 per kg. If these two demands are not met today, onion auction at Lasalgaon APMC will not start at all," Maharashtra Rajya Kanda Utpadak Sanghatana leader Bharat Dighole had said.
The other demands of MRKUS include the formation of a separate onion corporation with a Rs 5,000 crore provision; framing a permanent onion export policy, a 100 per cent loan waiver to onion growers, and starting onion-processing industries in onion growing districts.
In the evening, Bhuse assured the agitating farmers that a meeting will be held with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis at Mantralaya in Mumbai in the next eight days.
"As the agitation has been called off now, regular auctions will be held at the Lasalgaon APMC from Tuesday morning," officials said.
Rates of onions have hit bottom in the recent past. Earlier this month, a farmer from Maharashtra's Solapur district had a rude shock when he got to know that he earned a profit of merely Rs 2.49 against the sale of his 512 kg onions to a trader in the district.
The farmer, a resident of Barshi tehsil in Solapur district, had said his onion yield fetched a price of Re 1 per kg at the local market yard and after all the deductions he received this paltry sum as his net profit.
(With PTI input)
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