With the prices of onion (30 kg) touching the sky, people around the state are worried and left wondering if they can afford onions at all.
The price of onion which usually keeps fluctuating between 10 to 15 per kg has gone beyond the imagination due to the untimely rain and reduced supply of onions. And if you think that it’s the farmer who is the main reason behind the onion price rise, then you are wrong.

While talking to the agricultural experts, it has come to notice that the farmers who grow onion are hardly benefiting from the price hike. They are getting an inadequate price as compared to the hard work they put in.

Although they are the ones to reap the onion, they can’t decide the onion price as there are middlemen who snatch their benefits.

The actual price the farmers get is about RS. 12 per kg after the deduction of labor, costs of transport and commission of middlemen.

While speaking to one of the farmers who grows onion in the village called Makal in Khed Taluka- Balasaheb Takalkar said that “We are not getting the price we want. We spend almost Rs 20,000 to 22,000 for an acre of land. But, we cannot recover that much every season. Six months ago, we had to sell our onions at the rate of Rs 7 per kg in the market.”

He further informed that the untimely rain has destroyed THEIR entire crop.

Though we are onion producers, we cannot fix the prices. The price is set by middlemen in the market. So, we have to give them 10 to 12 per cent of our profits.”
While trying to find the answer for suddenly rising onion prices in the state, wholesale dealer Shivaji Bhujbal, who fixes the prizes and deals with the customers, said “The price of onions are on the demand and supply ratio. October is the season in which the old stocks finish and the new stocks arrive. It is in this period that there is a maximum gap in the demand and supply. This is why; there is a hike in onion prices during this period.

The city based agro expert Narendra Ladkat, talked about the predicament of the farmers and the injustice done to them. He said “a study conducted by the state government, clearly mentions that farmers end up with a fraction of the market price of the vegetables they grow. This is not only for onions. The person who spends six months toiling for the crop gets only 35 per cent of its value, and the one who sells the vegetables for six hours earns 65 per cent from it.

He also talked about the rights of farmers in fixing the veggie prices, he said,

In other states, expenses incurred by the middlemen and traders like taxes and transport costs are deducted from the traders. However, in Maharashtra these expenses are borne by the farmers.