In Maharashtra's onion belt, farmers still sore over policy flip-flops

LASALGAON (NASHIK): Dnyaneshwar Thombre, walking through his ravaged onion field in Purangaon, couldn't help but bewail the losses he endured because of govt policies, besides nature's vagaries. After a bumper yield last summer, he was looking to reap huge profits when Centre imposed a ban on onion exports, among other restrictions. This year, heavy Oct rain claimed a majority of his crop, snatching him of little hope after the past year's setback.

Purangaon falls under Yeola — the onion-growing belt of Maharashtra, which also houses the country's largest wholesale market in Lasalgaon. Farmers here are sore with BJP-led govts in Centre and state "for turning a blind eye to their woes". Their anger, manifested in Lok Sabha election earlier this year, poses a concern to Mahayuti candidates in Yeola, Dindori, Baglan, Chandwad, Malegaon Outer and Niphad constituencies this election season too.

In fact, a sizeable number of onion farmers who take their produce to Lasalgaon APMC hail from Yeola, the constituency of NCP heavyweight Chhagan Bhujbal. The annoyance among the onion growers was one of the reasons for the defeat of Union minister and BJP nominee Bharati Pawar in Dindori, the LS constituency which covers most of the assembly segments in rural Nashik.

As for Thombre and many others like him, the farmers stare at an uncertain present and a bleak future. Fed up with the rise in pesticide prices, they want GST on agriculture products to go. Pointing at his onion field, Thombre said, "Govt machinery has yet not reached my farm for damage assessment after the rain."

Double whammy for farmers

Popat Somase, who lives in a village near to Thombre's, has also lost most of his kharif crop to rain. "On an average, 80 to 100 quintals of onion is harvested from one acre of farmland. This year, however, I could harvest only 12 to 15 quintals from two acres. State hasn't even conducted a panchnama of the crop loss," Somase said.

Centre's decisions to impose restrictions on onion exports repeatedly over the past couple of years have farmers worried. Though Centre withdrew the restrictions in Sept after below-par Lok Sabha poll outcome, farmers feared that the restrictions would be back after the assembly poll.

Vinod Ahire, an onion farmer from Lasalgaon, argued that they did not want any relief from govt if the minimum support price was guaranteed. "Centre should not interfere in onion exports. If govt wants to do something for us, it should roll back GST on seeds, fertilisers and agriculture tools," he said.

The Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) in Lasalgaon sets the onion price trend across the country. On an average, 15,000 quintals of onions are auctioned here every day, which rises to 30,000 quintals a day during peak periods.

The Yeola constituency, largely agrarian, is set to witness an electoral battle between friends turned foes, Bhujbal and Manikrao Shinde of NCP (SCP). It was Shinde who had invited the NCP minister to make his electoral foray from rural Nashik in 2004 after Bhujbal tasted defeat in Mazgaon in Mumbai in 1995 and 1999. Bhujbal joined the undivided NCP when Sharad Pawar formed the party in 1999.

After Bhujbal sided with senior Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar, the NCP (SCP) chief held his first public meeting in Yeola last year, apologising to the voters for fielding Bhujbal from here in the past elections. For those unaware, Bhujbal has been winning the Yeola seat since 2004.

Mahayuti candidates also face Marathas' anger here who are irked with Bhujbal, for his anti-reservation stand for the community. "Bhujbal is a senior politician and has been deputy CM too. We did not think of caste while voting for him. He should not have spoken against the Marathas. We have still not forgotten his appeal to barbers to boycott the Marathas," said onion farmer Krishna Harkate from Yeola.

It is this mood that NCP (SCP) is planning to latch on to. "The Maratha voters (over 1.3 lakh) in Yeola are unhappy with Bhujbal for his stand on the reservation issue. They are not in the mood to vote for him this time," Bhujbal's poll rival Shinde said.

Bhujbal, however, denied that there was any resentment among the onion growers. "There were issues in the past that the Union govt has already addressed. The onion farmers are getting attractive money for selling the produce at the wholesale market. I am confident that the farmers will repose their faith in Mahayuti candidates in the onion belt," Bhujbal said, adding that govt had taken steps to address the Maratha reservation issue too.

A section of Yeola voters felt it would be a rather uphill task for the opposition to defeat Bhujbal since he had ‘assiduously' nurtured his support base in the constituency since his maiden victory in 2004. "Bhujbal's poll management is impeccable. Over the years, he has developed teams in almost all the 168 villages in the constituency that are his eyes and ears to tackling the woes of the villagers," a constituency resident said.