Bangalore: The State Government on Thursday decided on a minimum support price for onion, ranging from Rs. 100 to Rs. 400 a quintal depending on quality, and also to purchase the commodity from farmers.

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy chaired a meeting with Minister for Agriculture Bandeppa Kashempur, Minister for Horticulture Shashikanth Naik and senior officials following reports about the distress sale of onions in various districts. In Haveri, Hassan, Hubli and Dharwad farmers even resorted to dumping their produce on roads and market yards in protest against the price collapse. While it cost around Rs. 200 to grow a quintal of good quality onions, farmers were compelled to sell at less than Rs. 50 a quintal. However, in the retail markets in cities such as Bangalore the price continued to hover around Rs. 1,000 a quintal.

The Chief Minister said the Government would take stern steps to check the role of middlemen. "It is unfortunate that HOPCOMS, which was started to serve as a bridge between growers and consumers, is on the decline. In some districts the horticulture marketing cooperatives are unable to pay wages to their employees," he said.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said the Agricultural Marketing Federation and the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees would open onion purchase centres in various districts immediately. A sum of Rs. 2 crore would be released for the market intervention programme and additional funds would be released until onion prices stabilised.

Sugarcane

On the demand of sugarcane growers for a higher purchase price, the Chief Minister said the demand was under consideration.

While the sugarcane purchase price was between Rs. 1,500 and Rs. 1,600 a tonne in Maharashtra, it was around Rs. 900 in Karnataka. Farmers were demanding Rs. 1,400 a tonne for sugarcane grown in the north Karnataka (owing to the high recovery rate) and around Rs. 1,200 in the southern districts.

The Chief Minister said he would be leaving for New Delhi with Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on October 27 to invite President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to inaugurate the Suvarna Grama programme of the State Government.

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