Talavadi farmers give small onions free of cost to locals
The Hindu
Poor prices and crop damage due to rain have forced farmers to allow people harvest onions and take them home for free
Poor prices and crop damage due to rain during harvest season have forced many small onion farmers in Talavadi Hills to allow local people harvest onions and take them home free of cost.
Small onion is cultivated in over 550 acre in the hill area in December and harvested in March. Traders buy onions from the farmers and send them to markets in Coimbatore, Dindigul, Tiruchi, Madurai and other parts of the State. Onion was procured from farmers at ₹8 a kg during the third week of March, while the price plummeted in the markets and was sold for ₹15 to ₹20 a kg in retail.
B. Mahesh, a resident of Gumatapuram, said that farmers were planning to harvest the crop after Ugadi festival. But due to rain for four days in the last week of March, the crops were damaged extensively and the traders were reluctant to buy the produce. “A few traders quoted a purchase price of ₹3 a kg, whereas the labour charge for harvesting a kg of onion is ₹4 a kg,” he said. In order to reduce their loss, many farmers allowed people to harvest onions and take them home for free.
“Rain damaged the crops that were ready for harvest and they could not be sold”, said Puttanna, a farmer, who had cultivated onion in eight acre in Gumatapuram. The farmer said that poor prices and rain resulted in huge loss to hundreds of farmers in Talavadi and many were preparing for the second season in April.
Kannaiyan Subramaniam, convener of Talavadi Farmers’ Association, told The Hindu that shortage of labour, increase in production cost and drop in final price have hit hard the farmers in the hill area. He said that export of onions was affected in the last few years due to various reasons and wanted the governments to ensure fair price for the farmers.