KOLHAPUR/NASHIK: Rajendra Tukaram Chavan, a 58-year-old onion farmer from Borgaon village of Barshi taluka in Solapur district, just recently travelled 70km to the Solapur APMC to auction 512kg of onions he had actually gathered.

He managed to sell the fruit and vegetables for simply Re 1 per kg.

The deductions, Chavans net profit was hardly Rs 2.49 and he got the payment as a post-dated cheque for Rs 2, which he will be able to encash just after 15 days.

The 49 paise balance was not shown in the cheque as bank deals are usually in round figures.

To declare this balance, Chavan will need to directly take it from the trader, but the farmer feels it is not worth the effort.

I got Re 1 per kg for the onions.

The APMC trader further subtracted Rs 509.50 from the overall amount of Rs 512 towards transport charges, head-loading and weighing charges, a dejected Chavan stated, mentioning that he had actually handled to earn Rs 20 per kg in 2015.

The rate of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides has actually doubled in the previous 3-4 years.

I invested almost Rs 40,000 to grow just about 500kg of onions this time, he said.Explaining the reasoning behind providing a post-dated cheque for Rs 2, Nasir Khalifa, the trader at the Solapur APMC who purchased the onions from Chavan, said, We have actually computerised the process of providing receipts and cheques.

As an outcome, Chavans cheque was post-dated.

This is a typical practice no matter the amount on the cheque.

We have issued cheques of such percentages earlier too.

The onions brought for auction were of poor quality.

Previously, Chavan had brought premium onions that were sold at Rs 18 per kg.

He later on brought another batch, which fetched him Rs 14 per kg.

Low-quality onions are generally not in demand, said Khalifa, the owner of Surya Traders.

The cheque was released by among his relatives from whose checking account Surya Traders-related transactions are done.According to experts, farmers do not get more than 25% high-quality produce.

Roughly 30% of the fruit and vegetables is of medium quality and the staying is low grade.A bumper onion crop in Maharashtra and all other onion-producing states has actually sent out wholesale rates crashing.

Across the state, farmers like Chavan are spectical of even recovering their production expenses.

Wholesale onion rates at Nashiks Lasalgaon APMC, the countrys largest onion mandi, have dropped nearly 70% in the past two months.However, farmers have no choice however to sell the fruit and vegetables at the prevailing rates because the shelf-life of the late kharif onions is just about a month.

Afterwards, the produce starts rotting.

Given that all the farmers bring their crops to the market, there is a glut.The volume of onions arriving at the Lasalgaon market, which was around 15,000 quintal a day in December, has actually now doubled to 30,000 quintals a day.

The average wholesale onion rates at Lasalgaon dropped from Rs 1,850 per quintal on December 26, 2022, to Rs 550 per quintal on February 23, 2023.

It is the exact same story throughout the state.

Kedar Umbaraje, the Solapur APMC director who is likewise an onion trader, said: The day the Barshi farmer brought his onions, the APMC was flooded with 12,000 bags of onion.

A couple of weeks back, the Borgaon gram panchayat wrote to the state government seeking its intervention.

The letter likewise sought compensation for the losses incurred by onion growers and an assured cost for the produce in future.

The gram panchayat members, the majority of them farmers themselves, threatened to immolate themselves if their issues were not dealt with.

Two weeks on, they are yet to receive any interaction from the government.Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana chief Raju Shetti too desires answers.

How is the government going to stop farmers, who are not getting a good rate for their produce, from ending lives? We demand that the excess onions be exported.

In the name of controlling inflation, the government is taking actions that are pushing farmers further into distress, he said.In a recognition of the issue, Union minister of state for health and family welfare Bharati Pawar, who is an MP from Dindori, Nashiks onion growing belt, composed to Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal prompting him to guarantee that National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (Nafed) increases onion procurement to help stabilise the wholesale costs.

Nashik district guardian minister Dada Bhuse too is pinning hopes on Nafed.

He said the state federal government will ask for the main government company to start obtaining onions from the farmers.