In Maharashtra's dry belt, onions are born only to die in the fields

Amid stunted crops & stunted dreams, even politicians have turned their backs on this dry belt

Residents of Kolewadi in Osmanabad district, like this woman, are forced to carry pitchers tied to bicycles for a mile or two to reach the tanker point for their supply of drinking water. The locality hasn't ever had any source of drinking water

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Onions stand half-buried in a field. While the harvest isn't all that bad, the bulbs aren't reaching the market, or the consumer

Abhishek Waghmare Solapur/Osmanabad

4 min read Last Updated : Apr 17 2019 | 10:05 PM IST

Shashikant Garad, 31, has taken over the role of a farmer, from being the son of a farmer a few years ago. In the last season, akin to how a retail investor diversifies his investment portfolio, he diversified his crop portfolio on his 20-acre farmland by planting jowar (sorghum), onion, and lemon — a cereal crop, a vegetable, and a fruit.

The jowar crop, which rises to near-human height, stopped growing when it reached 3 feet from the ground. Young branches of lemon trees planted five years ago are turning grey in the heat without water, replacing the therapeutic lemony