When Sangram Singh, a resident of Mehndi village in the Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh, was informed by the village sarpanch that the mandi (wholesale market) would reopen soon, he was relieved. In fact, he accompanied the sarpanch to the mandi – 25 kms from his house — the next day. But his joy was short-lived. He was numb with shock upon receiving a measly sum of Rs 3,507 from the trader for 2,338 kgs of onions at the rate of Rs 1.50 per kg.
Four months ago, in November-December, the price of onion had reached Rs 200 per kg in the markets.
“What did I get in return for my five months of sheer hard work? I have lost more than Rs 12,000. What is the point of doing farming? But the media will not feature this news. A few days ago, when the price of onion had touched Rs 100, there was so much commotion,” said Sangram Singh.
On the one hand, the entire country is currently fighting the coronavirus pandemic, on the other, the farmers are fighting a different battle – a battle to get the right price. The government has claimed since the first day of the lockdown that the farmers are not facing any problem. However, the ground reality is that the farmers are dumping their crops, milk, and other produce. Even if someone is able to sell anything, he is getting a very low price.
The same thing had happened to Sangram Singh. Due to the lockdown, the administration at the Jamera mandi in Ratlam decided that farmers from 6-8 villages would be summoned, one at a time, to the mandi to avoid overcrowding.
Sangram Singh went to sell onions in mandi on May 6 where he got a rate of Rs 150 per quintal (Rs 1.5 kg).
He told Gaon Connection over the phone: “I had sown onions in a bigha (half an acre) field. For this, I spent Rs 3,000 on seed, Rs 1,350 on a sack of DAP, Rs 800 for two bags of urea, Rs 5,000 were spent in sowing, and Rs 3,000 were taken to pull out and pack onions. In between, I spent Rs 2,000 on sprayed pesticides. It was five months of hard work and the cost of irrigation was Rs 1,350. The mandi is 25 kms away from the house, so, the tractor took a fare of Rs 1,500. Overall, the expenditure came to about Rs 18,000 and I got Rs 3,507. So, it was a net loss of around Rs 15,000 straight away.”
Ratlam, Indore and Mandsaur districts of Madhya Pradesh are known for cultivation of onion. There is new onion ready on the fields, but due to the closure of mandis, the procurement has not yet properly started, and where it has started, the farmers are getting a substantially low price.
Shiva Mangal, a farmer from Ratlam’s Tara Khedi village, also suffered like Sangram Singh.
He said: “For the first time, I sold 19.5 quintals of onion at Rs 284 per quintal in the Javera Mandi. Then I thought of waiting for a few more days. After three days, the price went down further. So, I reached the mandi with 22 quintal onions and this time I sold onion at Rs 150 per quintal. I needed the money, so I am selling. What else can I do? I can’t keep so much onion at home.”
He added: “I had travelled a distance of 15 kms to sell these onions. If I had not sold today, I would have to pay for transportation yet again and the damage would have gone up. I have held back some onions and now am waiting for the price to rise. But I won’t be able to store them at home for long. It’s summer time, the produce will start rotting.”
A disappointed Shiva said: “In Javera Mandi, onion has recently sold for Rs 90 a quintal, so, I am beginning to feel that this year will be yet another difficult year for the onion farmers.”
It is not that this is the situation particular of Ratlam district. The price of onion in Mandsaur district is still running at Rs 2-3, while the price of the same onion in the market is Rs 20 to 25 per kg.
Onion is cultivated throughout the year in different states in the country. Its Rabi crop grows between April and August with about 60% of the total onion production. Between October and December, and January and March, 20 per cent of onion is produced in each quarter.
According to the agriculture ministry data, Maharashtra tops in terms of production of onion. Around 33% of the total production of the country is undertaken in Maharashtra. Besides, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Telangana are the major states in onion production.
Indore in Madhya Pradesh is known for its excellent varieties of onion, but is currently in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic. The mandis of the district are closed. The farmers are selling onions from the fields at a throwaway price.
Krishna Patidar, a farmer from Harsola village, about 40 kms away from Indore, sold 700 quintals of onion to a trader from outside three days ago for Rs 6 a kg (Rs 600 per quintal).
He told Gaon Connection over the phone: “If the onion has come out of the fields, it will have to be sold. If the mandis are closed, we have to sell onions off the fields, but the price is not good here also. The trader took onions at Rs 6 a kg. The onion of Indore does not go bad quickly so it is this onion that is mostly stocked and that is why we have the traders coming to the fields.”
In Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, on June 6, 2017, when the farmers were demanding the fair price of onion, police had opened fire in which six farmers had died. Thereafter, the then chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan had fixed the price of onion at Rs 8. Madhya Pradesh had become the first state to do so.
Providing details of onion cultivation, Krishna said: “There was a lot of damage this season. There was frequent rain, causing insects to get into the onion. Repeated spraying had to be undertaken due to which the expenditure had increased. In a bigha (about half an acre), Rs 5,000 were first spent towards seeds. Thereafter, the entire process of planting onion (in the field) cost Rs 5,000. The cost of chemicals has been more than Rs 15,000. When the crop is ready, Rs 8,000 are spent on the labourers towards its harvest.”
He added: “Altogether, a bigha costs Rs 30 to 35,000, while the yield is around 125 quintal (more than 100 kuntala). The total crop fetches Rs 60,000 at the rate of Rs 6 per kg. It does not include irrigation and transport to mandi. You can assess the advantages and disadvantages yourself. It costs at least Rs 10 to 11 to produce one kg of onion. In this way, we would only earn something at the price of Rs 1,500 per quintal and upwards.”
The fall in onion prices in Madhya Pradesh is nothing new. In the season, the farmers of the state often have to contest for the fair price of onion.
Udairam Devi Lal, 45, lives in Semalkheda village of Sitamau Tehsil, 40 kms away from mandi in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh. He has cultivated onion in 1.25 acres this year.
He informed: “The mandi is only opening up occasionally because of the lockdown, but the price of onion is still very low – Rs 3-4 a kg is the existing rate. We may wait for a few more days for the right price, but cannot keep it for long. We will have to sell it sooner or later.”
In a tweet, former Madhya Pradesh agriculture minister Sachin Yadav said: “I would request the chief minister to immediately implement the Chief Minister’s Onion Incentive Scheme so that the onion farmers of the state can get the same. Our previous government, led by Kamal Nath, had worked to give a benefit of Rs 200 crore to 56,000 farmers of the state. Last time, our government bought onions from farmers from May 6 to May 31. But this time neither the purchase has been started nor has the registration begun.”
Gaon Connection spoke to the present agriculture minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Patel on the issue. He first retorted at Yadav’s statement and said: “When Sachin Yadav was a minister, he had chana in his area Khargon 22.54 quintals per hectare and he bought chana at support price at 15 quintals per hectare. They could not bring justice to the farmers of their district. In Chhindwara, there is 17 quintals chana per hectare, and Kamal Nath ji bought 19 quintasl per hectare. There was more procurement than the actual production. When I became a minister, we stopped it immediately. The previous government benefited only the transporters. We are also investigating the matter and within a month, we will send the culprits to jail.”
He added: “So far as onion goes, the government of India is issuing licenses directly to the farmers to export onions. When certain traders were not allowed to go to Ratlam, I had immediately spoken to the collector. It is also a fact that whenever the farmer’s crop comes up, the price goes down. When the farmer goes to the mandi, he comes to know that while the trader has the capacity to buy 10,000 quintals, the goods have come to 50,000 quintals, why would then the trader offer fair price.”
“That is why, under the leadership of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, we have amended the Mandi Act. The previous rule was that only a Ratlam trader could buy the produce at Ratlam Mandi. Now, any person can buy in any mandi in the state. Through e-trading, any trader can buy produce from the farmers of Madhya Pradesh. This will ensure fair price to the farmers. The farmers of the village will now become businessmen themselves. We are buying as much as the farmer is producing. Since there is no government procurement policy for onion, this thing is happening, but we are trying our best. The farmers of the state will indeed get the right price for their produce,” he said.
