Sudhir Mungantiwar

unseasonal rains

Nashik-based Keshav Gatkal is one of the many affected farmers

exorbitant prices

Vegetable vendor Tanaji Dumbre, at City Light market in Matunga, says some restaurants have stopped serving free onions

Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana

City Light market

Rajendra Bhamre grows onions on his two-acre farmland

Green vegetables

spinach and coriander

Ashok Walunj says that most of the produce comes to Vashi from Nashik

All India Kisan Sabha

Middlemen usually stock up on produce bought at lower rates and sell big only when market is starved.In the second week of November, former finance minister of Maharashtra,, told reporters that theacross the state have damaged crops on 70 lakh hectares of land. The agrarian belts in Maharashtra have been in turmoil since October, when the farmers began to harvest their crops. It has resulted in severe shortage of vegetables across the state, causing vegetable prices to skyrocket.Traders at Vashi’s APMC market, from where the entire Mumbai city gets its vegetables, peg the reduction of supply to anywhere between 50 per cent and 70 per cent. Onion, at the centre of the debate, is particularly hit.According to Ashok Walunj, former director at Vashi APMC, the supply of onions has dwindled to half. “Most of the produce comes to Vashi from Nashik,” he says, taking this reporter through the market where the onions were being auctioned, and pointing to a deteriorated set of onions strewn on the ground. “Even this bag will be sold for Rs 70 per kilo. The better ones have touched Rs 120 or even Rs 130. The unseasonal rains have taken a toll on onion cultivators in Nashik.”About 100 km from Nashik, at the remote village of Pingalwade, an onion cultivator explains how the economics works. “An acre of onion farming requires Rs 1.5 lakh of investment,” says Rajendra Bhamre, 50, who grows onions on his two-acre farmland. “A decent season throws up around 150 quintals of harvest. The unseasonal rains post monsoon destroyed about 120 quintals of it this time around.” One quintal is 100 kilos.Bhamre says that when the harvest is decent, the prices collapse, and when the prices go up, the farmers have no harvest. “Now that our harvest is about 25 per cent of what it should be, the prices have shot up,” he adds “Onions are semi-perishable. We sell our harvest the moment we get a decent price. But the traders make profits because they have the luxury of storage facilities.”Bhamre’s analysis is at the core of the onion crisis that often recurs due to various reasons, and eventually wears out. It is a three-month crop that is planted in monsoons, as well as winters. The unseasonal rains have destroyed the onions sowed in monsoons. In over a month or so, farmers will harvest the onions planted in winters and the crisis will be arrested temporarily, until, of course, another event catches us off-guard.The fact of the matter is that even when consumers are paying, the farmers do not benefit from it. Observers say the middlemen usually stack up the produce that they have bought at lower rates from farmers, and bring it out when the market is starved, making huge profits.By the time the onion leaves Bhamre’s farm in Nashik and travels 300 km to a small vendor in Mumbai — from where most residents buy their vegetables — it goes up to Rs 160 per kilo. In between, it changes hands four or five times. The prices of onions have particularly made headlines, for it is one of the most common presences in the kitchens of residents across classes.According to an estimate, India’s daily requirement of onions is about 50,000 metric tonnes, and a family of five consumes 4.75 kilos of onions on a monthly basis. It is said that elections are sometimes won or lost because of the price of onions.Chairman of Punjab State Farmers’’ Commission Ajay Vir Jakhar, however, refuses to call it a crisis. “Onion is not a necessity like pulses,” he says. “If the price of a commodity that is not a necessity goes up, it is not a crisis. However, if the government is interested in having stability in its prices, because it impacts inflation, then it could create a fund that can work as a cooperative model.”The Indian government has imported 11,000 tonnes of onions to conquer the shortage, but farm leader and founder of, Raju Shetti, is strongly against the move. “By the time the onions from Turkey arrive, our farmers’ onions would also be in the market,” he tweeted. “As a result, our farmers would have to throw their onions on the road once again.”Elaborating on his point in a telephonic interview, Shetti says, “In Maharashtra, the unseasonal rains continued longer. But Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, where onion was sowed around August end, will be harvesting it shortly. That harvest would clash with the imports, causing prices to collapse.”The volatility of the market, as far as onions are concerned, is not experienced with paddy or wheat, for these are procured by the government. When the government fixes its Minimum Support Price, the market prices correspond. With onions, the markets have no watchdog.This week, onions caused waves in Parliament when finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, upon being questioned about the price rise, said she does not eat onions. BJP’s Ashwini Chaubey, a Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, was caught trivialising the crisis in a video that has since gone viral. “I am a vegetarian. I have never tasted an onion. So, how will a person like me know about the situation [market prices of onions]?” he asked.Tanaji Dumbre, who has a shop atin Matunga, says that a few restaurants may have stopped serving free onions, but people have not stopped consuming them. “Families cannot imagine their food without onions and tomato,” he says, with Arijit Singh songs playing in the background. “People raise their eyebrows, but eventually buy [onions and tomatoes]. You will see the same scene in Byculla market from where I get my supply.”All the vegetables follow a similar trajectory. The small vendors in the city procure their material from the main markets like the ones in Dadar, Borivali or Byculla, where semi-wholesalers predominantly operate. The semiwholesalers have their trucks parked at the Vashi APMC, which gets its supply from the market yards of Nashik, Pune and Western Maharashtra. The agents at these market yards are connected to farmers.At every step, the prices go up a notch, but there is no structure to it. It is a bit like the share market. The tomatoes that residents of Mumbai buy from vendors such as Dumbre cost Rs 40 per kilo today. In Nashik, the farmer sells them at Rs 3 to Rs 4 per kilo, marking a ten-fold rise.Keshav Gatkal, standing squeezed in the bustling market at Nashik, priced a 20-kilo crate of tomatoes at Rs 70. In other words, Rs 3.5 per kilo. “On an average, after investing Rs 1.20 lakh on an acre, we get 700 such crates of tomatoes,” he says. “After the unseasonal rains, I am left with about 140 of them. Once they are harvested, we have to sell it off as soon as possible. Tomatoes are highly perishable.”According to Shetti, the state needs to invest more in agriculture infrastructure to balance out the equation between farmers and middlemen. Currently, the farmers do not have much say because they do not have access to storage facilities. “Farmers do not have access to cold storages,” he says. “It results in severe post harvesting losses. Because of that, the consumers spend more and that money does not reach farmers’ pockets. We need to address the post harvest losses by making storage facilities available to farmers.”Farmers cultivating perishable crops suffer more in times like these. The harvest is destroyed quickly due to unseasonal rains, and what survives has to be sold off without any delay.like fenugreek,that cost Rs 8, Rs 7 and Rs 13 respectively at Nashik market cost about Rs 30, Rs 15 and Rs 30 respectively at the typical vendor’s stall in Matunga. Cabbage goes up to Rs 70 per kilo from Rs 8 per kilo in a span of 300 km. Eggplant, following a similar trajectory, is pegged at Rs 80 per kilo in Mumbai, while even at Vashi, it is sold at Rs 15 per kilo.Sandeep Dhemre, a trader in Vashi APMC, says that margins do not mean profits. “When vegetables travel from Nashik to Vashi, the traders have to bear the transport and labour costs,” he says. “Fuel is getting expensive. We have to pay labourers to load and unload the veggies in the truck. Further, the semi-wholesalers or small vendors also have to account for wastages. A 20-kilo crate of tomatoes, for example, would have a few low quality pieces that the retailers would have to discard.”Several observers have called for a mechanism where the middlemen do not exist, and the farmers are connected directly to the consumer. However, that could also prove to be counterproductive as it would render thousands of people — currently part of the distribution chain, who have been in this business traditionally — unemployed and uprooted. Also, not every farmer would have the bandwidth to transport his or her produce bypassing the local agents.Ashok Dhawle, farm leader with the, a farmers’ collective associated with the left, feels the distribution chain of middlemen needs to be regulated, and the government should intervene when farmers are exploited. “It is the government’s job to ensure that farmers get a fair price for their produce and that the consumers are not forced to pay exorbitant amounts for that produce,” he says. “If you want to avoid the dramatic fluctuation of prices, the government will have to enter the market and procure. When the government procures, it steadies the prices and traders are forced to buy the harvest at similar, respectable rates.”