Bitter onion facts and ALL-PARTY ALLIANCE!!!

The skyrocketing onion prices have created a big hole in our pockets over the last two months. And, see what a prominent onion trader operating in the Lasalgaon market, India’s largest onion market, feels about our plight: “If prices have gone up from Rs 20 to Rs 80 a kilo, the middle class is paying hardly Rs 120 more than their average monthly spending. This should not disturb them so much.”

The Lasalgaon market is in Maharashtra’s Nashik district where 70 per cent of India’s onion trade occurs. 

The above quote is part of the cover story of THE WEEK magazine's current issue available at this link: http://week.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/theWeekContent.do?contentId=15176275&programId=1073755753&tabId=13&BV_ID=@@@&categoryId=-208261 

Some more consumer gyaan (learning) related to the onion trade conducted in the Lasalgaon market over the past few months is as follows:

• A farmer who sold his produce at Rs 3500 a quintal, his profit after paying for raw material and labour costs was only Rs 9 a kilo.
• According to a farmer activist, traders in Lasalgaon Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) alone earned more than Rs 150 crore in just four days (Aug 12–15) this year.
• According to the leader of a prominent organization, “The (onion) auctions are a farce… Once the bidding is over, the winner announces the price. The farmers have to sell their crop to him even if the price does not meet their production cost. They get beaten up if they refuse.” 

Over the last few weeks we have seen much hue and cry over onion price rise in media and in the political arena. But hardly anyone told us about the plight of the onion farmer and how few traders monopolistic practices have created the artificial onion scarcity and consequent steep price rise.

Maybe it's due to the all-party alliance which is protecting the traders' interest in Nashik. One farmer activist points to this all-party alliance in these words: “About 90 per cent of the traders belong to the BJP; the state co-operative and agriculture ministers are from the Congress; and NCP chief Sharad Pawar is the Union agriculture minister."