Nagpur, Dec 19 (IANS): In a serious bid to avoid a backlash from onion growers as witnessed during the Lok Sabha elections, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP chief Ajit Pawar on Thursday urged the Centre to immediately remove 20 per cent export duty on onions to provide relief to farmers.
The removal of export duty is needed to safeguard the interests of onion farmers.
Ajit Pawar, in a letter to Union Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal, said that Nashik district from Maharashtra is most prominent in onion production and the production levels here are high.
The onion produced from here is available in other states in India and is also exported in large quantities abroad.
“The onion from Nashik has a huge demand in foreign lands. However, the Government of India has levied 20 per cent export duty on onions and hence the exports from the farmers are further hampered. Considering the interests of these farmers, if we remove the 20 per cent export duty on onions, the farmers can heave a sigh of relief with some of their losses being recovered,” he said.
He further said that as of today, the summer yield of onion has been exhausted and the fresh yield has arrived at various market committees across Maharashtra.
However, due to the number of onion arrivals at the markets, the farmers have been placed in a double predicament, that of not receiving the Minimum Support Price and of selling their produce at a drastically lower rate. The rates as of today are at Rs 2,400 per quintal on an average.
“The non-seasonal rains and the changing climate has already created a huge dent in the earnings of onion farmers. If they are further made to receive a rate that is lesser than the production costs, they will incur a huge economic loss and face problems due to it,” said Ajit Pawar.
Earlier, Ajit Pawar had admitted that dissatisfaction among onion growers, especially concerning low prices, played a significant role in the poor performance of the ruling MahaYuti alliance in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
He commented that the MahaYuti faced consequences for the discontent among farmers in Maharashtra's onion-growing regions like Nashik, leading to their poor performance in the elections.
Then Chief Minister, Eknath Shinde claimed onions made them cry in Nashik, soybean and cotton in Marathwada and Vidarbha in the general elections.
The Centre had imposed a ban on onion exports in December last year to curb retail prices that triggered protests among farmers in the Nashik region.
The ban was lifted in early May after widespread discontent. The Shiv Sena and BJP lost the Nashik and Dindori seats respectively while the MahaYuti won only one seat in Marathwada and two seats in Vidarbha.