Nashik, May 11 (PTI) Farmers protesting against the sharp fall in onion prices dumped a tractor-load of the kitchen staple outside the Nandgaon Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) premises in Maharashtra’s Nashik district on Monday.
Videos circulating on social media showed farmers unloading onions from a tractor trolley in front of the market committee office while raising slogans against the administration and traders.
The protesting farmers alleged wholesale onion prices had crashed across several market yards in Nashik district, resulting in cultivators not being able to recover even input and transportation costs.
According to traders and farmer groups, average-quality onions were currently fetching around Rs 800 to Rs 1,000 per quintal in many APMCs, while some smaller varieties were being sold at rates as low as Rs 1 to Rs 4 per kg.
“We are not getting prices that cover even the basic cost of cultivation and transport,” one of the protesting farmers said.
The Maharashtra state onion producers association attributed the decline in prices to increased arrivals of the Rabi onion crop in markets, distress sales due to storage losses amid rising temperatures, and uncertainty over export policies.
Representatives of onion growers demanded that the Centre and the Maharashtra government announce a minimum support price of Rs 2,000 per quintal and provide financial assistance to those affected by the price crash.
Officials of the Nandgaon APMC held discussions with the protesters, sources said.
Police personnel were deployed at the market yard as a precautionary measure to avoid any untoward incident. PTI MR BNM
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