Saurashtra growers get good prices

Onion growers in the Saurashtra-Kutch region are getting substantially higher prices for their crop on increased demand from buyers "� both domestic and global. This is on the back of a gradual slowdown in cultivation across the region during 2006-07, after it shot up seven-fold in 2003-04.

Excessive cotton crop cultivation, nature's unseasonal onslaught, inadequate logistics facilities and non-availability of minimum support price for the commodity have contributed to the decline in the region's onion cultivation.

"Last season, onion was cultivated over 30,000-31,000 hectares in the Saurashtra-Kutch region, but this season the area covered is hardly 10,200-10,700 hectares. This indicates a cultivation decline of 65-70 per cent," said Vinod Patel, president, Saurashtra Onion Cultivators' Association. Onion cultivation of past seven financial years in eight districts of the Saurashtra-Kutch region shows an "upward and sudden downward curve".

"If we look at the statistics of the last seven financial years, we can see that onion cultivation despite having jumped eight-fold in 2003-04 over 2000-01 suddenly started declining with cotton cultivation practically replacing the crop," Patel said.

Industry experts say it is really unfortunate to see that the excessive cotton cultivation is making a huge negative impact on several commodities, including onion, which is not only one of the most widely consumed commodities but also considered a politically sensitive item.

A huge quantum of onion is cultivated across Mahuva-Talaja in Bhavnagar district; Lalpur and Jam-jodhpur in Jamnagar district; Upleta, Dhoaji, Jetpur and Gondal in Rajkot district; Kutiyana, Ranavaav, Madhavpur Ghed and Ranakandorana in Porbandar district; and Halvad in Surendranagar district.

On the sector's failure to avail of the minimum support price and adequate logistics facilities, R K Seta, secretary of Mahuva APMC, said, "Like cotton, the government should also announce a support price for onion to arrest the drop in rates below a point. The policy of support price definitely encourages farmers to cultivate any crop.''

Last season, farmers realised only Rs 50-60 a quintal when they had a bumper production of 7 lakh tonne. Further, last year, in May "� the month in which farmers usually stock onion for sales and exports in the coming months "� they lost their entire stock owing to untimely rains.

"Even if they could save a little stock, because of poor quality it did not fetch them desired rates. So, the farmers suffered huge losses," Bipin Joshi, chairman of Mahuva APMC, said.

"Leave alone making profit, most of them could not even recover the cultivation cost. Besides, the previous two seasons too were not very good," he added.

"At present, Mahuva APMC is seeing a daily arrival of 15,000-16,000 quintal (1 bag = 40 kg), which is likely to go up to 1 lakh quintal in another 30-40 days," Seta said.