Chamarajanagara: This border District of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has main occupation as agriculture. Thousands of growers are involved in cultivation of onion. Onion is most sold vegetable in the country as farmers feel that the it has good demand and also fetches good price.
However, this time their calculation has gone wrong as the price of onion has come down due to excess supply in the market. The price of onion has gone up to Rs. 200 in the market owing to shortage of crop a year ago. Hoteliers stopped usage of onion in cooking due to high price. But now the price has reached rock bottom. The farmers have been getting just Rs. 12-13 per kilo for good quality onion. Farmers say that though there is good market in Tamil Nadu for onion, the night traffic ban in Dimbam -Satyamangala National Highway due to environmental cause by High Court has also affected them.
Onion is being grown in Hanur and Chamarajanagara Taluks.
Speaking to NewsKarnataka, Hanur onion grower Siddaramappa told that he sowed onion in his three acres of land. But the price completely crashed after harvest. He said he expected at least Rs. 15000 income in onion but now he has to sell it under loss. He said he strived three months in fields for growing onion. While sowing the price was Rs. 1500-1600 per quintal, which has come down to Rs. 500 to 600 now, he said and added that earlier he was growing sugarcane. After slump in sugar price he preferred to grow onion.
Another grower Murugashetty in Haradanahalli Village in Chamarajanagara Taluk said, “I have grown onion in my one acre farm after spending around Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 20,000 but now I cannot recover this money as prices for onion has slumped in wholesale, and retail markets. The price in Chamarajanagara APMC market has crashed to just Rs. 2 per kilogram for low quality onion beginning this week. Price crash has put onion growers’ livelihood at stake. Even in Lasalgaon, the largest onion market in the country the onion has witnessed sharp slump in its price since two months.
But in retail market the price is still high. In Kirana shops the onion is being sold at Rs. 20 to 25 per kilogram.”
