Brokers eat into profit of onion growers in Titlagarh

Brokers eat into profit of onion growers in Titlagarh

BALANGIR: WITH no market link, storage facilities or even fixation of a minimum support price (MSP), the onion growers of Titlagarh sub-division in Balangir district are a harried lot.

Onion, the backbone of the farming community in Titlagarh sub-division of Balangir district, is selling at distress price with the middlemen and unscrupulous traders dictating the price, said the farmers.

The crop is grown in around 25,000 hectares of land in Muribahal, Titlagarh, Tureikela and Bangomunda blocks in the sub-division.

Popular as Nashik of Odisha, the sub-division alone produces more than 30,000 tonnes of onion each season and is a major exporter of the crop to different parts of Odisha, besides neighbouring States. Adding to their woes is the absence of market to sell the produce.

The nearest Regulated Market Committee (RMC) is located at Kantabanji, which is around 45 km from Titlagarh town. The RMC, however, has no role to play in fixing the price of the commodity as the government is yet to intervene.

Taking advantage of the situation are the middlemen who camp in the villages just before harvest time, around April last week, and purchase the crop at throwaway price.

The middlemen and traders from Bargarh, Bhubaneswar and Raipur in Chhattisgarh  procure onion for Rs  5 to Rs  6 per kg and sell it at twice or three times the price. The retail price of onion, which is around Rs 12 to Rs 15 per kg, touches Rs 25 per kg in the retail market, a month or two later.

Apart from infrastructure shortage, natural factors like unseasonal rain and hailstorm earlier this month have left the farmers worried.

Brindaban Nag of Ganrei village in  Muribahal block, who cultivated onion on two acres land, claimed that 30 per cent of his crop got damaged due to unseasonal rain and hailstorm that lashed the region last month.

A worried Nag said, “Last year, I had earned more than Rs 30,000 from the crop but this year I am apprehensive of getting Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000. The loss is set to reflect on repayment of loans availed for cultivating the crop.”

Ganesh Putel, a farmer of Gandharabandh village in Bongamunda block, said last year he had earned Rs 15,000.  “But like every year, this season too traders from outside are deciding the price and damage to crop will only reduce my profits further,” he added.

The farmers demanded that the Government should declare a minimum support price (MSP) and set up storage facilities in areas where onion is grown in large qunatities in order to check exploitation by middlemen and migration.

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