In response to reports of falling prices in recent days, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday instructed the state marketing authority to guarantee a profitable price of ₹1200 per quintal for onions. Naidu ordered that the cost of onions should not drop below ₹1,200 per quintal at a review meeting with state secretariat officials.
The chief minister declared, “The government will pay farmers the difference amount to compensate the loss if they sell their onions to private traders below ₹1,200 per quintal,” according to a government release. According to those with knowledge of the situation, farmers who grow onions have reported experiencing extreme hardship as a result of not receiving fair pricing.
At Andhra Pradesh’s biggest onion market, Kurnool, hundreds of quintals of onions are heaped high. Due to stockpiling, the AP Marketing Federation (Markfed), which had been buying onions since August 31, has ceased its procurement. Farmers are now forced to rely only on private traders as a result.
According to Kondappa, a vendor in Kurnool, the main center for Andhra Pradesh’s onion production, “because onions are perishable, farmers were forced to sell them to traders for ₹300 to ₹600 per quintal, who in turn are selling the same in the open market for ₹2500 to ₹3000 per quintal.”
Despite the government’s announcement of a minimum support price (MSP) of ₹1,200 per quintal, he said that farmers are not receiving that amount. Another farmer from Kurnool, Thimmanna, claims that onions sold for more than ₹5,000 per quintal last year. “Farmers increased cultivation this year because last year’s prices were encouraging, which led to a bumper harvest,” he said.
Rather than selling at the fields, the farmers took their produce straight to the market. 16,000 quintals were sent to Kurnool market on September 6. According to Jayalakshmi, the yard secretary for Kurnool market, stocks have built up.
