Onion Price Crash: Farmers Demand APMC Dissolution

Nashik, May 12 (PTI) With onion prices plunging, a farmers' association on Tuesday demanded the immediate dissolution of the Nandgaon Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) in Maharashtra's Nashik district, accusing it of failing to conduct auctions of the key kitchen staple.

On Monday, farmers dumped a tractor-load of onions outside the Nandgaon APMC premises while raising slogans against the administration and traders.

They alleged that the wholesale onion prices had crashed across several market yards in Nashik district, resulting in cultivators not being able to recover even input and transportation costs.

According to traders and farmer groups, average-quality onions were currently fetching Rs 800 to Rs 1,000 per quintal in many APMCs, while some smaller varieties were being sold at rates as low as Rs 1 to Rs 4 per kg.



In a statement on Tuesday, the Maharashtra State Onion Growers' Association accused the market committee of becoming "defunct" and alleged that its leadership had abandoned responsibility at a time when farmers were facing severe hardship.



"The Nandgaon Market Committee currently exists only on paper. There is absolutely no administrative control over operations, and the chairman is nowhere to be found. It is a state of total anarchy where the authorities have turned a blind eye to the farmers' plight," the association claimed.




The inability of the market committee to facilitate auctions of the agricultural produce showed that its board had failed in its primary responsibility, it further claimed.



"If the committee is incapable of performing its primary duty of auctioning farmers' produce, the entire board of directors must be disqualified and the body dismissed. We urge the government to appoint an administrator and suspend the negligent officers and staff members immediately," the association said.



The demand comes amid growing resentment among onion growers in the region, who claim that disruption in auction operations has caused heavy financial losses and added to agrarian distress.



The association warned of intensified protests if immediate steps were not taken to restore normal functioning at the market committee.