No respite from tears for the onion farmers in Maharashtra as once again, their hopes of making up for their losses due to unseasonal rains in September, are crushed. The price of onion has fallen by 30 to 40 per cent within the last 10 days at the mandis in Nashik.

“Till ten days ago, the onions were selling for three to four thousand rupees per quintal at the mandi,” Arun Vitthal Gite, an onion farmer from Jayegaon village, Sinnar Taluka in Nashik district of Maharashtra, told Gaon Connection. But in the last three days the prices have dropped dramatically. Onions that had sold for Rs 2,345 per quintal on February 27, were selling for only 1,680 rupees a quintal on March 5, he said.

“I had hoped to earn three to three-and-a-half lakh rupees from my onion crop but now am finding it difficult to even recover the money I spent on cultivating it,” lamented Gite who had grown about 70 quintals of onion on his two-acre land. 

On February 23 at Lasalgaon, the country’s largest onion mandi in Nashik, the rate for regular onion was between Rs 2,100 and Rs 3,600 a quintal. On March 5, there was a steep drop in rates when the price ranged between Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 a quintal. 

“If one had to quantify it, it is quite possible that this time the farmers are likely to lose as much as one thousand rupees per quintal,” Bharat Dighole, chairperson Maharashtra state onion growers organisation, told Gaon Connection.

He referred to the huge losses onion farmers had faced due to the unseasonal rains in September, and again, last month on February 18 and 19, the districts Nashik, Dhule and Pune had seen heavy rainfall and hailstorms causing further grief to the onion farmers there, he said. 

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“This adverse weather will have grave implications because it is during this time that onion seeds come up. The recent hail has not just ravaged the entire crop of onion to be sold, but also the crop reserved to produce seeds,” Dighole said. The rains in September had considerably damaged onion nurseries in several districts of Maharashtra.

“Because of the damage, I had to set up the nursery again with purchased seeds and have already incurred double expense,” said Gite adding that to cultivate his two acres (0.8 hectares) of onion he spent nearly Rs 110,000.

In Maharashtra, onion is cultivated four times a year agaiti (early) kharif, kharif, pacheti (late) kharif and rabi. In case of early kharif onions, seeds are sown in February-March, transplanted in April-May, and harvested in August-September. Sowing of kharif onion is done in May-June, transplanting happens in July-August and harvesting is done during October-December. Sowing of late kharif crop of onion is done in August-September, transplanting in October-November and harvesting in January-March. The rabi season onion is sown in October-November, transplanted in December-January and harvested in April-May. 

The late kharif onion is in the market and the farmers fear the prices will tumble further as the rabi onions will be making an entry. The unseasonal rains have played havoc with the cultivation and harvesting schedule of the onion crop causing much grief to the farmers. 

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The recent hailstorm of February 18 was particularly devastating. “The hail completely ruined my crop. The twenty per cent or so that was left standing fell prey to fungus,” Dinesh Uttam Ahire, from Antapur village in Satana taluka of Nashik told Gaon Connection. He had onions in 1.6 hectares. “I have lost it all,” said the 37-year-old onion farmer who said that for every 0.4 hectare of onions, he spent up to Rs 80,000. Like Gite, he too had to re-purchase seeds for the nursery that had been destroyed in the September rains.

According to the Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research (ICAR-DOGR) located in Pune, Maharashtra, the state has the highest onion production in the country, with Nashik, Ahmednagar, Pune, Dhule and Sholapur districts cultivating onions. This is followed by Karnataka, Gujarat, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. 

According to data from the National Horticulture Research and Development Foundation, in Maharashtra, onion is cultivated on about 507.96 thousand hectares and 8,854.09 thousand metric tonnes of onion is produced.  

Those farmers who have storage facilities are waiting and watching. “I have grown seven acres (2.8 hectares) of onions and my crop will be ready by mid-April,” Sandeep Magar, a farmer from Devla taluka of Nashik district, told Gaon Connection. He said at that time the onion prices would be really low so he would keep his harvested onions in storage. “I have decided to store my onions till I find a better rate as I cannot sell my produce so cheap,” he said.

Jitendra Jadhav, a farmer from Dhule district, who cultivates onion in a little over four hectares will harvest his onions in a fortnight’s time. “I am monitoring the market regularly. At the moment, the price is very poor,” he said. He hopes by the time his crop is ready he will get a reasonable price for it.

Read the story in Hindi.

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