Following a series of protests launched by the farmers of Nashik district, a major onion growing centre in the country, Rane took up the demand with Hegde, who assured that the necessary steps to alleviate the woes of the affected growers would be taken by the Centre.

The crunch faced by the onion growers was also discussed at a high-level coordination committee meeting held last week. The committee had empowered Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan to take up the demand with the centre.

The State had argued its case citing the case of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka where the Centre had lifted the ban on important varieties of onion.

Rane said he stressed upon the Commerce Minister the plight of farmer who were getting between Rs 400 and Rs 600 per quintal due to a flood of arrivals in the market against Rs 1700 to Rs2700 per quintal last year.

More than one lakh quintals of onion arrived in the market last month against an average arrival of 40,000 quintals during October, November and December during the last season. On an average 3500 quintal onion was currently pouring into the market every day, he pointed out. The centre had last year imposed temporary ban on export of onion effective till January 31 this year following steep price rise in the domestic market due to shortage of bulbs.

The price crash caused by the glut in production during the current season has reversed the situation to the extent that farmers began a series of agitations demanding among other things a lift on the blanket ban on exports.

traders boycott auction

Nashik, Feb 5: Trading at the biggest wholesale marketyard of onions at Lasalgaon came to a standstill today, as all traders boycotted the auction demanding total lifting of the ban on export of the commodity.

The boycott call was given by Nandkumar Daga, president of thetraders' association. The traders are demanding that the ban on export of onions, which has been partially lifted, be totally withdrawn as wholesale marketyards have been flooded with the fresh crop and prices have plummeted below Rs. 300 per quintal.

The agitation of traders is to express solidarity with a similar demand of the farmers, who have also been demanding that the minimum wholesale price be fixed at Rs. 500 per quintal to prevent losses to farmers. The local association of farmers and farm labourers, the Shetkari Shetmajoor Sanghatana has planned a rail roko at Lasalgaon on Tuesday.

The Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee, which has been receiving over 700 tractor trailors (carrying 30 quintals of onions each) daily, remained deserted today as farmers stayed away. The auctions are likely to resume on Monday as the marketyard would be closed for weekend holidays on Saturday and Sunday.

The average wholesale prices of onions (which had peaked to Rs. 4,000 per quintal in Octoberlast year) have dwindled below Rs. 300 per quintal. On Thursday, the average wholesale prices ranged between Rs. 265 and Rs.285 per quintal.