Government Extends Compensation Deadline to 31 Dec for Onion Growers

In Maharashtra, the government has extended the scope of compensation that will be provided to onion growers. This is the latest move by the state government to help the troubled onion farmers.

The Maharashtra government had earlier announced compensation of Rs 200 per quintal for up to maximum 200 quintal per cultivator for those who had sold their onions in between 1st November to 15th December 2018. But now, as per the latest decision, farmers who had sold their onions from 15th December to 31st December 2018 will also be eligible to get the compensation.

The Government Resolution that was issued on 31st January said, “As onion prices continued to remain subdued even after 15th December, elected representatives, farmers and farmers’ organisations had demanded extension of the period of onion incentives to 31st December.”

The minimum price of onion at the standard Lasalgaon APMC in Nashik was - Rs 1.51 per kg and the maximum price was Rs 7 per kg on 30th January 2019.

To recall, on 20th December 2018, Maharashtra state government had announced a-Rs 150 crore compensation scheme for the onion growers, who sold their produce in between 1st November to 15th December.

As prices went down to as low as Rs 1 per kg due to oversupply in the market, growers could not even recover the cost of transporting onion from farm to the mandis. Since most of the onion sold at throw away rates during last few months belonged to the stores stocks that the cultivators were carrying from past 6 months, they had to bear complete losses.