Karnataka - Bangalore   

Middlemen benefit from increase in onion prices

BANGALORE: The record price of onions earlier this week has only meant moderate gains for farmers, with the bulk of the profits going to middlemen. Some farmers, in fact, did not benefit at all as their onion crop was destroyed by untimely rain.

A harvest of about 13 lakh tonnes from a total area of 1.2 lakh hectares in Karnataka was expected in 2010.

About 45 per cent of the crop has been totally lost while 15 per cent suffered damage.

Farmers in Bellary, Raichur and other districts in that belt, where onions were harvested early, did not benefit much. “In November, farmers got between Rs. 17 and Rs. 19 a kg when the wholesale prices hovered between Rs. 20 and Rs. 25 a kg,” said Aralihalli Jayanna, an onion farmer from Itagi in Hoovina Hadagali taluk of Bellary.

By the second week of November, most of the onions grown in the rain-fed districts of Bellary, Raichur and surrounding areas were harvested.

Those who harvested in late November got a better price when the wholesale prices started increasing.

“On an average, farmers earned between Rs. 20 and Rs. 25 a kg when the retail prices hovered between Rs. 50 and Rs. 60 a kilo,” Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha leader Kodihalli Chandrashekar, pointed out.

The late harvest came from Dharwad, Haveri, Gadag and Bagalkot region, where farmers were lucky to salvage crops despite untimely rain. Around the same time prices started rising.

“Though farmers got between Rs. 20 and Rs. 25 a kg, when the retail price was between Rs. 65 and Rs. 85 per kg, it is still a higher farmgate price when compared to last year. In 2009, they earned between Rs. 10 and Rs. 12,” Mr. Chandrashekar said.

Horticulture Department officials blamed the National Agricultural Marketing Federation (NAFED) for failing to foresee the unprecedented jump in onion prices.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Winner here gets to go on a foreign tour!
‘Gift blankets, spread warmth'
Concert to raise funds to buy instruments
Registration for Kannada meet
University staff call off strike, NET as scheduled
Hospitals accredited to NBE set up ANBAI
8 fatalities in Bangalore power company region this year
ICICI Manipal Academy to train probationary officers
Poor quality food being supplied to anganwadi children: Congress
Middlemen benefit from increase in onion prices
Two held, jewellery worth Rs. 1.9 crore recovered
Man held on theft charge
Commercialisation of education opposed
Minor raped, killed
Leaders greet Christians
Speed blamed for car accident at Nagarabavi
BBMP plans to widen Chowdiah Road
Three impostors held; fake DDs recovered
Despite heavy spending, city lakes are in poor state
Onion prices continue to decline
Assert your rights, consumers told
In Bangalore today

Copyright © 2010, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu