Onions! A vegetable which has been listed among the essential commodities in India. A vegetable which is so essential and influential that it can make or break a government. And when these onions act pricy, it becomes the ‘Breaking News’ in our country!
It can be understood if only the most underprivileged part of our society which is below poverty level have a problem with this.
But a huge part of our society that is WE, the middle class Indians can pay Rs.1000 on an average every month for internet. Almost Rs. 1000 again as mobile bills. We don’t hesitate to spend a minimum of Rs. 2000 for a family dinner once a month. If you can afford an Air Conditioner then I am sure you might be paying an electricity bill of Rs. 1500 (minimum) per month too. We can buy branded jeans, an iPhone, and we do not cry over giving away our hard earned money to the rich petrol pump owners. Even a flop Bollywood film makes crores in our country. But when it comes to onion we just cannot stop cribbing.
The media shows us that a common man cannot pay Rs.60 per week on onions and we blindly believe it.
We also believed the media in the month of March-April this year when it conveyed to us how farmers in Maharashtra are committing suicides because of the untimely rain and hailstorm which has ruined their almost ready-to-harvest Rabi crop. But do you know that most of the farmers in Maharashtra are onion growers? Do you have any idea that the hailstorm resulted in 40% loss to these farmers resulting to their suicides.
Onion, a major crop in Maharashtra, has been damaged with untimely rains and traders refused to pick up crops after concluding deals with farmers in various regions of the state early this year. The farmers were forced to sell the remaining crops at much lesser rate as the traders complained about the quality of the onions.
Lasalgaon (town in Nashik District in Maharashtra) is the largest hub of onions in Asia. After the rains, even Lasalgaon APMC (Agricultural produce market committee) had to dispose off its produce at Rs 900 per quintal as against the normal prevailing rate of Rs 1,200-1,400 a quintal.
Around 3-4 trucks of onions were refused by traders after concluding deals at the day’s rate, and after the rains began, traders demanded the same commodity at lower rates.
The late kharif crop has been damaged to the extent of 50% and kharif onion continues to arrive in the market till the end of March. This onion does not have a shelf life of more than a month due to moisture content.
The summer (rabi) crop comprises approximately 60% of the total production of onions in India and has a shelf life of around 6-7 months only. Mainly, the Rabi onion may be stored till October-November and is made available steadily for domestic as well as export markets.
So, as per general seasonal trend, price of onion tend to increase and reach at peak during September to November and drops in January-March with the arrival of the late kharif crop.
And mostly when the winter (kharif) crop harvest is poor, the onion supply goes down and prices spike during winters. It has been observed that the main Kharif yields’ dependency on rains disturbs the regular production and amounts to heavy losses of the produce as well as of farmer’s incomes.
What happens when we make a fuss about the onion prices?
The panic in public due to onion prices forces the government to stop exports which is beneficial to the farmers.
The government also imports it from other countries like Egypt. The transportation cost is an added load on the government because of which they buy onions at much lower rate from our own farmers.
We all expect at least 10% hike in our salaries every year and we get it too. Then why are we so reluctant to pay a little extra for a few months every year to the people who are responsible of getting food on our expensive chinaware dishes?
The population which is below poverty level is around 20-25% in our country. Only this part of the society which earns not more Rs.60 per day are the actual sufferers of the inflation in essential commodities. But most of this is 25% of population comprises of the people who directly or indirectly earn from farming. Can’t we spend a little extra for them?
A farmer also has a right to get a bonus like we do in Diwali. So this Diwali if you spend little extra money on your vegetables just think of the smile on the faces of the farmer’s kids who might get new clothes with that money.
