Kurnool onion farmers left in tears

• Price crashes to Rs 200 from Rs 2,000 a quintal in just 10 days
• Kurnool onion market dictates price in the entire country during kharif season
• Onion is cultivated in 15,000 hectares in the red soil belt of the district

Kurnool: Onion prices in Kurnool district on Thursday slumped following heavy arrivals in the past 10 days. During this season, which began in the first week of August, saw the price of onion going up to Rs 2,000 a quintal. But it slid to Rs 200 now.

Traders in the Kurnool Market yard are for last few days not buying the onion on the pretext that the produce has high moisture content due to untimely rains, leading to poor quality. Kurnool is the major onion market in South India and the crop during the kharif season from the market controls price of the produce in the entire country. Maharashtra crop dominates during rabi season. The Kurnool onion is exported to Kolkata, Odisha and several districts in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states.

The farmers, who arrive in the market with heavy loads of onion, are literally in tears with the price suddenly being manipulated by the vested interests. The farmers bewailed that they were unable to recover even the expenditure incurred on harvesting the crop, leave along the cost of cultivation. The officials, despite numerous appeals by the farmers, have remained unmoved. “If we are denied remunerative price, we have no alternative except committing suicide,” the farmers lament.

Onion is cultivated in about 15,000 hectares in red soil belt of Kurnool district. Kodumur, Gonegandla, Yemmiganur, C Belagal and Kurnool rural mandals are major producers of the bulb crop. Onion is the major cash crop for farmers. The crop is harvested within 80 days. Around 80 quintals is produced from an acre plot in good conditions.