Nashik’s onion traders are persisting with their strike, now stretching into its eighth day. In response, the Maharashtra government is contemplating the implementation of an alternative auctioning system to facilitate farmers in selling their produce, ensuring a steady supply of onions in the market and averting any shortages.
Abdul Sattar, the Marketing Minister of Maharashtra State, has emphasised that traders should not exert undue pressure on farmers, especially considering the significant losses farmers are suffering due to onions rotting in storage. He further said that the government is actively formulating a strategy to curtail the ability of traders to call for strikes. Additionally, the government is contemplating the possibility of requesting national agencies to step in and facilitate the procurement of onions directly from farmers.
There is consideration of involving Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) to establish these centers, which could serve as viable platforms for agricultural transactions.
Onion farmers in Nashik have demanded that the government must facilitate their effort to take the produce directly to the market as traders and agents are dictating terms in the APMCs.
Traders in Nashik are on strike demanding the withdrawal of the 40 per cent export duty on onions that was imposed last month by the government. Additionally, traders have accused government agencies the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (Nafed) and the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India Limited (NCCF), of procuring onions from Nashik farmers and selling them to APMCs in other States at prices considerably lower than what bulk buyers are charged.