Agriculture is considered a gamble in India. Sometimes the crop gets destroyed due to bad weather and sometimes there is so much production that the prices fall down. In both the cases, the back of the farmer breaks. The latest case is from Karnataka. Due to the bumper production of onion and tomato here, the prices have come down to the ground. The situation is so bad that farmers are not getting even Rs 5 for selling 100 kg of onions.
Onion price reached Rs 2
Onion prices had come down to between Rs 2 and 10 per kg in Karnataka’s Yeshwanthpur Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) a few days ago. However, onion prices are now stable in the range of Rs 12 to Rs 18 per kg, depending on the quality. In such a situation, onion farmers are finding it difficult to recover the expenses incurred on transportation, loading and unloading of goods and growing the crop.
got only 8 rupees for selling the crop
Pavadeppa Hallikeri, a farmer from Thimmapura in Gadag district in northern Karnataka, got a good crop of onions and when he reached the Bengaluru market with 205 kg of onions on November 22, he found that the price in the city had dropped to Rs 2 per kg. Thus, he got Rs.410 and had to pay Rs.401.64 as unloading charges for his produce. He got only Rs 8.36 in hand and the ‘copy’ of his bill has now gone viral on social media.
Farmers are now saying ‘mistake happened’
“It was a mistake to grow onions and take it to Bengaluru for a good profit,” said the onion grower. Hallikeri said it was a double whammy for farmers in his area – the area was flooded and prices crashed. An onion grower from Bengaluru said, “The price of Rs 12 a kg is also a very low price in the face of all our difficulties. It is also becoming difficult to recover the expenses incurred on loading and unloading goods and growing crops.
bad condition of tomato
The plight of tomato growers in South Karnataka is no different from that of onion growers in North Karnataka. According to Manjunath, a wholesale vegetable trader of KR Market here, tomatoes are being sold at Rs 5 to Rs 6 per kg in the wholesale market, while in retail, tomatoes are being sold between Rs 8 and Rs 12 per kg. Nilaturu Chinappa Reddy, president of the Kolar District Fruit and Vegetable Producers’ Struggle Committee, has demanded that the government announce the minimum support price for onions, potatoes and tomatoes.
Farmers are demanding support price
Due to the increase in the production of tomatoes and onions in Karnataka, the farmers of the state are very worried due to the huge fall in the prices of these vegetables. Kolar District Fruit and Vegetable Producers Sangharsh Samiti has demanded the government to declare minimum support price for onion and tomato growers to protect the interests of the farmers. According to sources in the Yesvantpur Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) here, onion prices had come down to between Rs 2 and 10 per kg a few days ago. However, onion prices are now stable in the range of Rs 12 to Rs 18 per kg, depending on the quality.
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