High prices prompt farmers to uproot onions prematurely

Eyeing profit from the boom in onion prices across the country, farmers in the Bhavnagar district of Gujarat, the third-largest producer of the vegetable in the country, are uprooting the crop almost a month before they are ready for harvest.

“Some farmers in the Bhavnagar district of Gujarat are uprooting the crop almost a month in advance in order to cash in on rising prices. This is ruining the quality of the produce,” Azadpur-based Onion Merchants Association General Secretary Rajendra Sharma said.

Onions were normally harvested in the region after January 15, but some farmers had already started pulling the crop from their fields to earn big money in view of skyrocketing prices across the country, he added.

Sources in the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC), Bhavnagar, confirmed that some farmers had arrived in the market yard with their premature harvest, but the officials rejected their produce. “We are meticulously checking the quality of onions before buying them from farmers,” APMC Bhavnagar Chairman Jitendra Singh Chudasama said.

At their peak on December 20, a 20-kg sack of onion was sold for around Rs 1,230 at the APMC Bhavnagar, but the price has now come down to around Rs 800-850, according to sources.

Unseasonal rain had delayed sowing of onions by a month till November. Despite being a bulk producing region, Bhavnagar has also not been spared from the sky-high prices. Prices had peaked at Rs 60-65 in Bhavnagar’s retail market on December 20, when it was Rs 70-85 a kg in the retail market of some metros. However, the retail price in Bhavnagar has now fallen to about Rs 40 a kg.

Sharma said Delhi’s Azadpur market, Asia’s biggest wholesale fruit and vegetables market, usually received 800-850 tonnes of onions from Bhavnagar every year. However, this year, just 50 tonnes of onions were received.

Gujarat is the third-largest producer of onions in the country after Maharashtra, with an annual production of over 900,000 tonnes. Around 90-95 per cent of Gujarat’s onion output comes from Bhavnagar, Surendranagar, Junagadh, Rajkot and Jamnagar districts. Bhavnagar district alone contributes 35-40 per cent to the state’s output.