Nashik: Onion farmers block highway

NASHIK: Onion farmers from Nashik blocked the Mumbai-Agra national highway near Malegaon to protest against the low wholesale price of onions.
The protest lasted for two hours, affecting the flow of vehicular traffic on the highway. During the last two months, the farmers have resorted to similar protests in different parts of the district.
Kuber Jadhav, an office-bearer of Maharashtra onion growers association, who led the agitation, said there has been a huge drop in average wholesale price of onions during the last few months due to which the farmers are incurring heavy losses.
"We are unable to recover even the production cost at the existing wholesale price. Hence, we want the government to take immediate measures in this regard. We want the Centre to introduce Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 3,000 per quintal so that farmers would be benefited," Jadhav said.