Hyderabad: The price of onions in the markets is seeing a push, so that the cost per kilogram of vegetables is now as low as R 6. The big drop took place at a time when the same price was sold in the market for 50-70 RK per kg last month.
This drastic drop in onion prices landed farmers in tears who spent Rs 50,000 per acre for cultivation. Farmers, who took agricultural land on lease, will now have to pay 20,000 more than rent, despite a large production and a good production yield. But the low prices in the market left the farmers sad and worried.
On the city market Sadashivpet, more than 70 thousand quintets of onions are brought every year, which are brought by the farmers in the districts of Vikarabad and Ranga Reddy.
Venkatiah, a farmer from the Govindapur mandal of the Sangareddy district, said he brought onions produced on his two acres of land to market on Thursday last week. He spent about 50,000 million per acre on the agricultural products, which are sold at 60,000 R5 and he sees almost no profit, which is worrying. Venkatiah further added that his entire family has been concentrating on onion production for the past four months, and now they see no benefit from it.
Another farmer in Vikarabad district, Basvaraj, said he received only 300 million a quarter for his onions because his agricultural products were of inferior quality. He said a seed company had deceived him this year by giving seeds of low standard. He said that they get only Rs 3 per kg as a result of suffering a loss of Rs 20000-30000 on an acre of onion soil.
Onion market secretary K. Lankeshwar said he usually sends onions to Vijayawada and other Andhra Pradesh districts, but this time Kurnool also saw a large production. Apart from the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh districts, Maharashtra and other neighboring states also ship onions in large numbers to the wholesale markets in Hyderabad.
One farmer appealed to the government to set a standard selling price of the onions and build a modern storage unit so that a price balance is maintained, which benefits the farmer and the buyer.
Source: The Siasat Daily