Farmers shunning onion to avoid tears

Pithapuram: After suffering heavy losses for the past few seasons due to highly volatile prices of onion, upland farmers of East Godavari district are showing reluctance to cultivate the vegetable. As a result, the onion crop acreage in the upland areas has declined to a few hundreds of acres this season from thousands of acres earlier. Normally, onion seedlings are planted between July and September.

The government used to supply onion seeds and seedlings free of cost to farmers earlier. Now, a subsidy of Rs 1,200 is being paid to a farmer per acre if he purchases onion seeds. The farmer will get no subsidy if he opts for onion seedlings to raise the crop. Non-payment of subsidy on onion seedlings and acute shortage of seedlings have contributed to the drastic decline in the crop acreage. The plantation of onion seedlings is yet to be completed in upland areas this season and it is likely to continue till the end of this month.

Onion used to be cultivated on about 1,000 acres in Gollaprolu mandal earlier. The crop is also raised in Chebrolu, Durgada, China Jaggampeta and other villages. The total crop acreage in the entire Gollaprolu mandal is not more than 200 acres this time. Speaking to The Hans India, farmers Krishnarjuna and Sattiraju attributed the steep decline in the onion crop acreage in the mandal to lack of adequate encouragement from the government, acute shortage of seedlings, lack of good yield due to pest attack and price fluctuations. ``We have to invest Rs 3,000 per acre on onion seedlings itself now.

en bundles of onion seedlings are needed per acre. The non-payment of subsidy on onion seedlings has proved to be a major deterrent to farmers to take up its cultivation in more area,’’ they said. Elaborating further on the steep fall in the crop acreage, the farmers said: ``We are incurring an average expenditure of Rs 75,000 per acre to raise onion. But we are not getting an income of more than Rs 50,000 per acre due to highly volatile prices of onion. Hence, most of the farmers have come to a conclusion that it is better to opt for other crops rather than raising onion. It is also advisable for farmers to opt for crop rotation to retain the fertility of soil and increase the crop yield.’’

Horticulture officer Sujatha said: ``The department is paying a 50 per cent subsidy per acre on equipment if the farmer cultivates onion crop using drip irrigation method. We are also providing proper guidance to onion farmers to reap a good harvest.’’ However, there is a widespread perception in the upland areas that the onion crop never comes to harvest when its price is high in the open market. The onion crop comes to harvest in the area in December or January.

Fresh onion crop from Maharashtra and Karnataka floods the market by that time causing a fall in the prices of the vegetable in the local market. Unlike Bellary variety, the onion cultivated in Gollaprolu is highly perishable due to the nature of soil and weather conditions. The harvested crop gets spoiled if it is stored for more than a week to get a better price. Hence, farmers are forced to sell their produce soon after harvesting the crop even if the market price for onion is not remunerative for them.

Onions from East Godavari are exported to Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Odisha. Some farmers are of the view that the gradual decline in the onion crop acreage in East Godavari district can be checked if the horticulture officials focus on supply of quality seedlings to growers much in advance instead of August as it is helpful to them to reap a good harvest and get a better price for their produce.

By Saride Nageswara Rao