NASHIK: All market committees of the Nashik district are witnessing a continuous fall in onion prices, and farmers are expressing their displeasure over the continued fall in prices. Even today, the farmers are getting Rs 700 to 800 per quintal for their produce.
Usually, when the supply to the market reduces, the prices rise. However, in recent times, the prices are continuously falling even after the onion crop’s supply has been reduced to the market.
On one hand, petrol, diesel, and domestic gas cylinder prices have skyrocketed, while on the other hand, onion prices are falling. At present, farmers are in despair as they cannot recover the production expenses, let alone the transportation expenses.
Since onion is a cash crop, most farmers in Nashik district do onion plantations on a large scale. They even generated decent profit levels from the crop. However, for the past few years, farmers are not even able to recover their production costs. Even this year, farmers had planted onions in large quantities. However, due to heavy rainfall and climate change, the yield per acre was less than expected.
To get decent prices for their crop, farmers started to store their products in the hope that reduced supply will boost in price rise. However, the weather didn’t cooperate, and due to heavy rains and sunshine, their stored produce started to rot.
Almost 10,000 to 12,000 quintals of onions were brought to the market committee every day with the help of 500 to 700 vehicles. Due to the increased supply, the prices fell to Rs 800 per quintal. Therefore, farmers reduced supply in the market committee to 5000 quintals. However, the prices continued to fall.
