Fall in onion prices bring tears to Cong, NCP; farmers out on streets

MUMBAI: High onion prices may have played a role in the outcome of recent assembly elections, but a steep drop in the vegetable’s price may ironically pose a problem for the ruling parties in Maharashtra.

Resentment among farmers over poor returns for various crops is slowly becoming a cause for worry for the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, which together rule the state. Days after a farmers’ agitation in south Maharashtra demanding higher sugarcane prices mellowed down, farmers in north Maharashtra are now out in the streets to protest a sudden drop in onion prices.


Small political groups such as the recently formed Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), or Organization of Farmers with Pride, have gained ground in several districts at the cost of established political parties. “We are only raising our voice for the legitimate demands of the farmers. We feel that on one hand politicians use them only as a vote bank and on the other traders exploit them for financial gain,” said Raju Shetty, a Lok Sabha MP and chief of the SSS. “We realised that unless we take up a political fight, nothing will change.” Farmers in Maharashtra’s Nashik district, which is one of India’s largest onion producing regions, have been blocking roads and forcing merchants to close shops since Monday. They are angry over the sudden drop in onion prices and they think traders have manipulated this. Just four weeks ago onions were fetching Rs 4,800 a quintal in the wholesale market of Lasalgaon, while on Monday the price was Rs 1,000. Nashik, Dhule and Jalgaon have traditionally been the strongholds of the Congress and the NCP.

Worried over the reactions seen in Nashik, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan announced that he has written a letter to Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma to abolish, or at least reduce, the minimum export price for onions, which is currently set high at $1,150 a ton to increase local supplies by discouraging exports.