Yawal onion seedlings find no buyers, farmers ready to give them away free
Farmers in western Yawal taluka say nobody will take their onion seedlings even for free, and some plan to plough them under.
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Onion transplanting in the western part of Yawal taluka has reached its final stage. Of all the rabi season planting, farmers have put the largest area under onion. The transplanting has been under way since the start of August and is now about to end.
Even so, a large area still lies unplanted because farmers are unable to transplant, owing to a shortage of water and a cash crunch. Many farmers had bought onion seed and raised seedlings. But no one is willing to buy these seedlings now, and they are in a bad state. Farmers are ready to give the seedlings away free, but not even a farmer comes to take them for nothing. As a result, the seedlings are now fit only to be thrown away.
Farmers usually buy onion seed in June and July at Rs 800 to Rs 900 a kg, raise seedlings in the field, and transplant them once they are ready. In the first week of August, a patch of these seedlings measuring 100 feet by three feet was selling for Rs 3,000.
The price for a patch of the same size is now said to be Rs 700 to Rs 800, yet no one is taking it even at that rate. Finally, many farmers have decided to give the seedlings away free. They have also warned that if no one takes them, a harrow will be run over the seedlings. Drought, falling water levels, financial distress, indebtedness and the blow of inflation are among the reasons being cited.
Bhushan Mali, a farmer from Dahigaon, said, "We transplant onions on a large scale every year. Buying onion seed, raising seedlings and selling them to farmers, and also planting onions in our own field, is our farming business. But this year no one is ready to take seedlings, so in the end we are ready to give them away free."
Mali added, "Even then no farmer is ready to take the seedlings. That is the state we are in. In the end we are going to decide to uproot the seedlings, or run a plough and harrow over them, and throw them away."
Farmers are distressed by the situation. Among farmers, it is being said that the government urgently needs to pay attention to this serious matter and that measures should be taken for a water scheme.
