COVID-19 has struck a big blow to the onion farmers in Kurnool district with lots of produce coming home at the fag end of the rabi crop. With literally no cold storage facility for onions as seen around Nasik or Pune in Maharashtra, shelf life of the produce in the district gets limited to two weeks at the best.
Harvesting is almost coming to a close and at Sudireddypalli and the courtyard of Venkatalakshmamma and Ballary Srinivas is filled with 30 bright red bags of onions ready for delivery to any prospective buyer. But the onion market closed on April 1.
A small partially wet lot is out under a semi shade to dry so that it could also be packed.
From buying seeds to paying the farm hands at every stage in three months in a three-acre land in the Pasupula panchayat close to Kurnool city, the couple spent ₹1.10 lakh and had almost struck a deal to sell the produce at ₹800 a quintal, but now with the market close getting even ₹500 a quintal was looking difficult.
Onions are grown in 1,912 hectares in the district and about 42,000 quintals had arrived at the market so far before closure, Horticulture Assistant Director B. Raghunath Reddy told The Hindu. Efforts were on to enter into a tie-up with buyers and external markets by the Marketing Department to bailout the farmers, he added.
While District Collector G. Veerapandian said the administration was sending several trucks everyday to several districts and other States, there were many such growers looking for immediate help.
A week before the lockdown was imposed price ruled at ₹2,800 a quintal and many traders and wholesalers stocked good quantities in the initial days, showing reluctance now to take in more stocks at this juncture. Currently, the onions were available at ₹25 a kg in the rythu bazaar in Kurnool and ₹30 a kg in vegetable kiosks in Anantapur.
A grower and trader Mulla Mohiddin Saheb, however, says even now there is a demand and stocks are being sent to Gudem, Srikakulam, Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru and some places in Telangana with the support of the Marketing Department and was able to realise ₹800 to ₹1,000 per quintal from Saturday to Monday.
Chemical fertilizers
Due to the application of chemical fertilizers by Kurnool growers, the demand was lower and the quality of Nasik and Pune onions was much better with a dry outer skin commanding better price, he observed.
