Maharashtra’s onion belt battles falling prices and growing farm distress

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Mumbai: The entire onion-producing belt of Maharashtra is now caught in another farm crisis with collapsing market prices further hammering farmers who are already suffering due to weather damage, escalating input costs, and policy vacillation.

The farm crisis got so grave that senior leaders from Maharashtra have made desperate visits to Delhi and pleaded with the Centre to take emergency steps.

During discussions, it is understood that the Centre assured the visiting leaders that it would take up steps such as directly purchasing onions from farmers, clear quality grading mechanisms, and not ban the exports of onions again.

But farmers across the state argue that these kinds of assurances were given to them even last year, and still, their concerns continue to worsen. They complain that the onion prices have been so devastating that in many cases, they were not able to cover the cultivation expenses even once.

With some of the areas also witnessing crop damage due to untimely and harsh weather this year, their yield has also reduced and storage facilities have not performed well either.

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They also feel that if production goes up, price slumps, and if production falls, the overall price also reduces drastically, as in the case of a crop failure, the farmers also incur losses.

A serious concern among farmers, however, still remains the sudden change in policies, especially the abrupt banning of exports once the retail price rises. Farmers insist that while policy changes are always meant to keep the urban consumer happy, farmers are often left to face heavy losses.

Some of the farmer groups are now demanding a clear policy framework for the onions, minimum support price mechanisms, and storage facilities to avoid this recurring farm crisis in the onions sector.

Onion trade accounts for a significant part of the rural economy of Maharashtra, and its current crisis clearly portrays the precarious situation in which several of its farmers are.

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