Maharashtra / Maharashtra farmer travels 70km to sell 512kg onions gets cheque for Only Rs 2

Kolhapur. An incident has come to light in Maharashtra, hearing about which will open your eyes about the plight of the farmers. Rajendra Tukaram Chavan, an onion farmer from Borgaon in Barshi taluka of Solapur district, recently traveled 70 km to the Solapur APMC mandi to sell 512 kg of onions. Had reached after traveling There his onions were sold at the rate of just Re 1 per kg. After all the deductions, Chavan got only Rs 2.49 and that too in the form of a post-dated cheque. Which he will be able to redeem only after 15 days. The outstanding amount of 49 paise was not written in the cheque. Because bank transactions usually do in round figure. Chavan will have to collect this balance from the merchant.

According to a news of Times of India, Chavan told that he got a price of Re 1 per kg for onions. The APMC merchant deducted Rs 509.50 for transportation charges, head-loading and weighing charges from a total amount of Rs 512. In this way he got only 2.49 paise. Chavan said that last year the price of onion was Rs 20 per kg. He said that the cost of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides has doubled in the last 3-4 years. This time it cost him around Rs 40,000 to grow just 500 kg of onions.

On issuing a post-dated check of Rs 2, Solapur APMC trader Nasir Khalifa, who bought onions from Chavan, said that the process of issuing receipt and check has been linked to the computer. Due to this a post-dated check was issued to Chavan. Checks for such small amounts have been issued in the past, regardless of the amount on the cheque. Khalifa, the owner of Surya Traders, said that the quality of the onions brought for sale was poor. Earlier Chavan had brought onions of good quality earlier, so he was given a price of Rs 18 per kg. Later he brought another consignment of onions, for which he got a price of Rs 14 per kg. Poor quality onions are generally not in demand. While according to experts, only 25% of the farmers' produce is high quality onions. While about 30% of the yield is of medium quality and the rest is poor quality onions. The wholesale prices have already come down by a whopping 70% due to the bumper crop of onions this year.