The onion problem has reared its head yet again in Maharashtra, with two MLAs of the ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) questioning 20% export duty on the crop, in the Assembly on Monday. Niphad MLA Dilip Bankar and Yeola legislator Chhagan Bhujbal – who hail from Nashik district, which encompasses the onion belt of the state and includes Asia’s largest onion market at Lasalgaon – brought up the issue in the House after farmers briefly suspended trade at the Lasalgaon market in protest against the export duty. Though state Minister Jaykumar Rawal assured the MLAs that the matter will be raised with the Centre and that the duty would be “rescinded at the earliest”, the fresh impetus to the issue is not likely to go down well for the Mahayuti, which saw a reversal in its electoral fortunes in the onion belt during the Assembly polls on top of a drubbing in the region in last year’s Lok Sabha elections. “Onion prices have been on a slide since the start of the year. The wholesale price was around Rs 2,300-2,400 per quintal but has been dipping since the beginning of March. On Tuesday, the average price was Rs 1,700 per quintal and, with the summer crop being harvested, we expect the price to dip further,” the president of the Maharashtra Onion Growers Association, Bharat Dighole. told The Indian Express. Dighole, like many other onion farmers, blames the 20% export duty for the falling prices. India exports around 10-15% of the over 300 lakh tonnes of onion it grows. Though the exports are small, they are instrumental in keeping the domestic prices stable. According to government figures, India exported 25.63 lakh tonnes of onions at Rs 4,649.98 crore in the 2022-2023 fiscal, which fell to 17.58 lakh tonnes at Rs 4,138.33 crore in the 2023-24 fiscal. Between April and November in the current financial year, the country exported 6.73 lakh tonnes of onions valued at Rs 2,754.85 crore. Dighole as well as the Mahayuti – comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar’s NCP – are no strangers to the onion issue. A day after the Lok Sabha results in June and ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s roadshow in Nashik, Dighole was reportedly asked to stay at home. The fear was that he may raise the issue of the losses faced by farmers due to the ban on onion exports imposed by the Centre in December 2023, citing a fall in domestic production. However, in the onion belt, it was seen as a move prioritising consumers - by banning exports to ensure that the onion prices didn't rise domestically - over producers, that is farmers. Realising the anger in the region, the NDA government at the Centre rolled back the export ban in May last year amid the Lok Sabha polls. However, the alliance still suffered heavy losses in the onion belt of the state – which extends over Dindori, Nashik, Beed, Aurangabad, Ahmednagar and Dhule Lok Sabha seats. Party heavyweights like former Union Ministers Bharati Pawar and Subhash Bhambre, and Pankaja Munde and Sujay Vikhe-Patil bit the dust from Dinodri, Dhule, Beed and Ahmednagar respectively. Traders too have slammed the 20% export duty as detrimental, especially with 10 lakh hectares of summer onion crop being harvested. “With Eid round the corner, there is an increased demand from the Middle East. This is the right time to lift the curbs to help farmers and boost exports,” a trader from Kalwan taluka in Nashik said. In neighbouring Baglan taluka, Dipak Pagar expressed concern as he oversaw the harvesting of onions on his 20-acre land. “The rates of onions are low and will hit rock bottom by the time the Rabi onion is harvested,” he said. With no elections round the corner, Pagar, who is also the head of the Nashik unit of the Rayat Kranti Sena – a farmer outfit headed by BJP MLC and former minister Sadabhau Khot – is not very hopeful about the government rolling back the export duty. “I have personally fought for onion farmers over the years and change in governments seem to have no positive effect on us,” he said. The Opposition, battered in the Assembly elections, has smelled an opportunity to put the government on the backfoot. MLAs of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) – comprising the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) – staged a protest outside the Assembly on Wednesday demanding a full loan waiver for farmers, a poll promise of the Mahayuti, claiming that the condition of farmers is bad due to the low realisation from crops like onion, soybean. On Tuesday, farmer leader and former Hatkanangle MP Raju Shetti tried to march to the Assembly with his supporters but was stopped mid-way by the police. Shetti lost last year’s polls to the Shiv Sena’s Dhairyasheel Mane. Mahayuti’s friend-turned-foe and founder of the Prahar Janshakti Party Bacchu Kadu has announced his support for the protests. “Both the Lok Sabha and Assembly are in session. Legislators across party lines must talk about farmer issues,” he has said. In last year's Assembly polls, Kadu lost from the Achalpur constituency, after he had held the seat four consecutive times between 2004 and 2019. However, farmers feel that the war of words between the ruling and Opposition leaders is just another routine affair. Pointing out that a minister had assured of action in December last year, Pagar said: “There are Assembly elections in Bihar later this year. Thus, the government’s priority would be the consumer and not the grower.”
