Glut of onions now, Lasalgaon ryots stage another rasta roko

NASHIK, Dec 30: The farmers stir against the alarming decline in the onion prices intensified today as the Lasalgaon marketyard hit an av...

NASHIK, Dec 30: The farmers stir against the alarming decline in the onion prices intensified today as the Lasalgaon marketyard hit an average of Rs 440 per quintal; the price was Rs 651 yesterday. Alarmed farmers to stage an unannounced rasta roko in Lasalgaon to demand the lifting of the export ban on the commodity to ease their losses arising out of glut of onions. This the second stir in two days. Yesterday, about 300 farmers staged a rasta roko in Vinchur on the Nahsik-Aurangabad highway.

The prices have been falling below the four digit figure over the last fortnight. Today there were 700 tractor trailors-load (each carrying abot 30 quintals) lined up for the auction. The prices ranged from Rs 251 per quintal to Rs 500 per quintal, the average being Rs 440 per quintal.

Annoyed at the authorities, farmers closed down the auctions in protest and an unannounced and `leaderless rasta roko’ was astaged in the Lasalgaon town to demand remunerative price for onions.

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A spokesman of the LasalgaonAgriculture Produce Marketing Committee said that the prices had plummeted at all the APMCs in the district today below Rs 500 per quintal (Rs 5 per kilo) with arrivals of 10,000 tonnes. He pointed out that with the cost of cultivation in the range of Rs 15,000 – Rs 16,000 per acre and the yield being about 50 quintals per acre, the prices declining below Rs 500 per quintal were causing losses to farmers.

The Shetkari Mazoor Sanghatana of Lasalgaon has already called for a bandh in the town on January 5 on the issue. However, with prices falling everyday, farmers have panicked.

Meanwhile, Congress MP from Nashik Madhavrao Paril has urged the Prime Minister and Union Agriculture Minister to ask NAFED to intervene in the market to save the onion farmers by lifting the export ban and buying the commodity at remunerative price above Rs 500 per quintal.