In yet another disheartening incident, a 58-year-old onion farmer from Maharashtra travelled 70 km from his village to the Solapur Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) to sell his 512 kgs of onion produce. After all the efforts, Rajendra Tukaram Chavan could sell the onions only for Re 1 per kg. And after the deductions, his revenue was Rs 2.49 out of Rs. 512.
Chavan said that the APMC trader deducted Rs 509.5 from Rs 512 as transportation, head-loading and weighing fees. The 49 paise will not show up in the cheque as bank transactions are usually in round figures.
Besides, the cheque for Rs 2 that he received will be encashed only after 15 days and Chavan can only take it from the trader, but he feels it is not worth the effort. He added that last year, he sold the onions for Rs 20 per kg.
The disheartened farmer said that he spent around Rs 40,000 to grow the onions as the price of seeds and fertilisers has doubled in the last few years.
But a massive produce this year brought a huge dip in the wholesale prices. Due to this, Nashik’s Lasalgaon APMC saw a dip of around 70 per cent in the onion purchase price.
The trader who bought the onions from Chavan said that the produce this year was of low quality. Earlier, Chavan had brought high-quality onions that were sold at Rs 18 per kg and another batch was sold at Rs 14 per kg, he said.
