Onion growers stage protest, demand fair price

J Abbas Mulla

Hubballi: Farmers of Dharwad and other districts continued to protest on Wednesday demanding a fair price for onion at the APMC.

Farmers from Vijaypur, Bagalkot, Belagavi and Dharwad districts assembled on Hubballi-Dharwad Road and staged rasta roko condemning traders for bidding a low price for onion at Amargol APMC.

Former Navalgund MLA NH Konaraddi joined the farmers’ protest. He also discussed the farmers’ problems with traders in the presence of officials of district administration.

Up to 1pm vehicular movement between Hubballi-Dharwad was thrown out of gear while police struggled to manage traffic. The protesters staged rasta roko for more than an hour and urged the DC to come to place. Zuber Ahemad, assistant commissioner, visited the place and he was there till the time the problem was resolved after discussing with traders, who agreed to give better price for onion.

According to sources in the APMC, in the morning, some traders were quoting a low price for onion during bidding that left farmers fuming, who went on a flash strike.

Manjunath Jakati, a farmer from Navalgund said that in the morning some traders were quoting lower prices ranging between Rs 500 to Rs 2,500 per quintal. Ashok, another farmer said traders are intentionally not quoting a good price even when there is a huge demand for onion. “We requested the traders to give good price like Monday, but they refused and behaved rudely. As a result, all farmers went on a protest.”

NH Konaraddi, former MLA, said that a ban on export of onion by the Union government is the main cause for this problem. However, the relation between farmers and traders should be cordial, he added. He also asked traders to give fair price for onion since farmers are in trouble due to flood.

Zuber Ahemad, assistant commissioner, Dharwad, said that traders have agreed to give a fair price for onion.

Traders appealed to farmers not to bring poor quality onion to the market, which will not fetch them a good price. “Many farmers are bringing poor quality onions and asking for higher price,” said some traders.

Meanwhile, agitating farmers reportedly threw stones at a truck which was busy loading onion. However, deputy commissioner of police DL Nagesh said no such incident took place.