Maharashtra: After excess rain & fall in prices, onion farmers hit by export duty, threaten stir

But his hopes have received a setback with the Union Finance Ministry’s notification on August 19, imposing a 40 per cent duty on onion exports.

“From March till June, our problem was aasmani (nature-induced), from too much or too little rain. Now, it is sultani (government),” said Sonawane, a three-acre farmer from Manjargaon village in Niphad taluka of Nashik district.

Agricultural produce markets across Nashik – including the two major ones of Lasalgaon and Pimpalgaon for onions – were shut on Monday, as traders boycotted auctions to protest against the Centre’s decision.

Sonawane had harvested his 350 quintals of rabi (winter-spring season) onions in March-April. “In March, when the harvest had just begun, we had continuous rain and hail for three days. The 200 quintals that I sold in May was from that crop, which could not be stored for too long. It is the remaining 150 quintals of good storable-quality onion, which was harvested after mid-April, that I had started selling this month,” he said. He is now worried about what the remaining 135 quintals in his “kanda chawl” (on-farm raised platform storage structure) will fetch.

For farmers like him, excess rain through much of March-April, causing damage to roughly 40 per cent of the stored rabi onions, wasn’t the only problem. Hardly any rain after that, in May-June, meant there wasn’t enough water for many of them to plant the kharif (monsoon) onions in June-July. Sonawane was forced to sow maize in its place. He wants to plant a late-kharif onion crop in September, but is deterred by no rain this month, as well as the prospect of prices falling after the 40 per cent export duty.

“We have given the government three days to reconsider its decision. If there is no rollback, we will march with our tractors to Mumbai,” warned Deepak Pagar, a 20-acre farmer from Utrane village in Nashik’s Baglan taluka.

Pagar had to plough back about 30 per cent of his rabi onion crop (planted in December-January and harvested in March-April) that suffered damage from excess rain in March. “I sold around 900 quintals at Rs 500-600/ quintal during May and have another 600 quintals still in storage. I was just about to sell that, but these people (in government) have a knack of hurting us just when things seem to be looking up. This is not the first time they have virtually banned exports or imposed other controls,” he said.

India’s onion exports stood at 15.78 lakh tonnes (lt) in 2020-21 (April-March); 15.37 lt in 2021-22; and 25.25 lt in 2022-23, valued at Rs 2,826.53 crore, Rs 3,432.16 crore and Rs 4,522.79 crore respectively. The exports – constituting less than a tenth of the country’s officially estimated 300-320 lt annual production – are mainly to Bangladesh, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, Qatar, Vietnam, Oman and Kuwait.

The all-India average modal retail price of onion is currently Rs 30/kg, as against Rs 25 a year ago and Rs 20 three months ago. The latest government action has been prompted by fears of onion prices going the tomato way, besides fears of a not-too-good crop from lower kharif acreages and El Niño-induced dry weather that may impact the late-kharif and rabi plantings as well. The government also does not want inflationary pressures in a year leading to the Lok Sabha elections.