Hubli onion growers in tears

hubli: the life of onion growers in the region is pathetic. it's november, and the focus is on agricultural produce marketing committee (apmc) yard in amargol area of hubli for the arrival of onion. last year, the price of onions crashed following a bumper yield and the government had to step in with the offer of support price. but a problem of different hue is grappling farmers this year: the yield is less than half of last year's.some of the farmers did not venture into onion farming following last year's bitter experience and scanty rainfall. the arrival at the yard is about 43,700 quintals as against 74,103 quintals in 2000-2001. this is not even 50 per cent of the expected production of the region. it was a miserable situation for the farmers in november last year with onions flooding the yard that drowned farmers in a flood of tears. apmc secretary k.t. obappa said: ``a weighing assistant alone had earned rs 15,000 each month during the previous season. this worker is paid on commission basis.'' this in itself symbolises the quantity of onion that has arrived at the yard, he said. obappa said farmers of dharwad, bijapur, bagalkot, nashik, gadag and haveri districts bring the produce to hubli from where onions are lifted to different destinations such as bangalore, tiruchi and towns in andhra pradesh, kerala and goa. since the arrival of local variety is almost negligible, the onion production is almost nil in dharwad. whatever has arrived is from bijapur (teligi variety) and pune variety from nashik. it is expected that the pune variety would continue to arrive till february. sources in the horticulture department said in dharwad alone 18,800 hectares came in for onion cultivation last year producing 1,12,800 tonnes of onions. it is observed that this year the production will not cross more than 25,000 tonnes. unlike previous year, prices are stable -- at least now. this season, the rate touched a high of rs 800 and ebbed a low of rs 360. the rates, last year, nosedived to the rs 50-rs 300 bracket. a farmer at the apmc yard said as the rain failed no one rooted for onions. and whoever grew them could not get a better yield due to mist. knowledgeable sources feared the hubli apmc in the coming years may lose out to davanagere as far as the onion produce is concerned. many farmers are opting for davanagere market area than the traditional hubli-dharwad base.