It is going to be four months since farmers sat on an indefinite agitation on Delhi’s borders against the three agricultural laws and seeking guarantee on minimum support price (MSP). Meanwhile, onion farmers in Maharashtra have embarked on yet another protest demanding the right to set a fair price for their crops through the ‘Humara Pyaz, Humara Daam’ (our onion, our price) agitation.  

The protest was launched on March 22 this year from Asia’s largest mandi Lasalgaon in Nashik district. “Our demand is that the farmers be given a rate of at least thirty rupees a kilo for onion, be it Maharashtra or Uttar Pradesh,”  Bharat Dighole, president of the Maharashtra Kanda Utpadak Sangathan, an association of onion producers, told Gaon Connection.

“Through this, we are creating awareness among farmers so that those growing onions are given the authority to collectively set the price of onion. We farmers work hard, but it is the traders who get all the benefit,” Dighole said. 

Last year, onion prices shot up tremendously, touching Rs 200 a kilogramme in the retail market. At the mandi, the price touched Rs 100. The hike did not benefit the farmer in any way. Their yield had halved due to the rains, and desperate farmers had sold their produce in the mandi before prices shot up. 

Also read: Onion Tears: The price of onion might have come down, but is expected to climb steeply again

“We are specifically talking about onion, because despite the price of onion often crossing the hundred rupees mark, only the traders get the benefit, not farmers, ” Dighole said.

According to the Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research in Pune, Maharashtra has the highest onion production in the country, followed by Karnataka, Gujarat, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Farmers cultivate onion in Nashik, Ahmednagar, Pune, Dhule and Sholapur districts in Maharashtra.  

“The agitation also includes farmers from other parts of the country,” said Dighole. “We are meeting members of gram panchayats and zilla panchayats, besides MLAs, MPs, ministers as well as former ministers. Many people have expressed their support in writing,” he added.

In Maharashtra, onion is cultivated four times a year (agaiti (early) kharif, kharif, pacheti (late) kharif and rabi), and harvested from August to May. 

Also read: Peeling the layers: The annual saga of onion price hike and crash

“As of now, one lakh and forty three thousand farmers have joined our Facebook group in support. Our movement is aided by the support of lakhs of farmers on our WhatsApp group. There are more than two-and-half lakh farmers who are not on social media, but with us,” said Dighole.

The association hopes to visit every taluka and every village and head to states such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, where onion is cultivated “in order to awaken the farmers”, Dighole added.

Farmers are usually compelled to take their onion to the mandi soon after harvest, because they do not have storage facilities. Jitendra Shinde, a farmer from Miri village of Pathardi taluka in Ahmednagar district, suffered a huge loss because of this. 

“Hardly ten farmers out of hundred in a village have storage facilities. The government provides very little financial help to build storage. It takes four lakh rupees to create storage of twenty five tonnes. The government gives us a maximum of eighty seven thousand and five hundred rupees,” Dighole said.

If 2,000 farmers apply for storage in one tehsil, only 100 get it through a lottery system. Even then, we wait, farmers said.

Like last year, this year too, the weather has played truant. Hailstorm in February and March caused a lot of damage to onion farmers. Which is why the demand for fixing the price themselves has gained more traction.

Also Read: Maharashtra farmers stung as onion prices plummet