Onion growers demand ₹10,000 crore revival package from Centre, stable export policy

Maharashtra’s onion farmers have urged the Center to announce a special ₹10,000 crore recovery package, saying repeated export curbs, natural calamities and price falls have left them in a severe financial crisis.

Bharat Dighole, founder and president of Maharashtra State Onion Growers Association, said farmers have suffered huge losses over the years due to what he called flawed export policies, spurious seeds, storage losses and other factors.

He said the Centre’s decision to impose an export ban in 2019, 2020 and 2023-24, impose a 40% export duty and fix minimum export prices of $850 and $550 per tonne at different times has hit onion growers hard.

The central government’s move to release onion stocks through NAFED and NCCF at lower rates in the domestic market has adversely affected kitchen food prices and caused heavy financial loss to farmers, he said in a statement.

National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) and the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India (NCCF) are the central agencies tasked with acquiring and maintaining buffer stocks of onions.

Onion growers have also suffered losses due to several factors including excessive rainfall, hailstorms, seasonal rains, floods, drought, false seeds and crop diseases. In contrast, farmers who stored onions in 2025 and sold them in 2026 received extremely low prices, she claimed.

The association demanded that the aid be transferred directly to the farmers’ bank accounts to offset their losses. Onion cultivation is done in about 30 districts of Maharashtra, he said.

“Policies that harm onion growers in the name of consumer welfare must end. The Center should immediately announce a special package to revive onions worth Rs 10,000 crore,” Mr. Dighole said.

Based on onion growing area, farm size patterns, agricultural studies and government data, Maharashtra has around 10,000 to 15,000 farm families involved in onion production annually, he said.

Among other things, the association demanded a subsidy scheme for certified onion seeds, 100% subsidy for storage halls and warehouses and a special fund to facilitate direct sales from farmers, farmers’ organizations, cooperatives and growers’ associations to consumers.

The authority has sought special financial arrangements for setting up onion processing industries in major onion producing areas including Nashik, Ahilyanagar, Pune, Beed, Satara, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalgaon, Dhule and Solapur.

It also sought support for farmer-owned units that manufacture onion powder, onion flakes, dehydrated onion, onion paste and other value-added products.

The association called for an onion export support fund, a stable, long-term national onion export policy rather than repeated export bans and tariffs, and a “National Onion Stabilization Fund” to provide immediate financial protection to farmers in the event of a price collapse.

Among its other demands are interest-free or low-interest loans to prevent distressed sales of stored onions, special assistance to farm companies and cooperatives in the purchase, storage, processing and marketing of onions, and the establishment of an independent “National Onion Producers Corporation” to protect the interests of growers.

“If the onion farmers survive, the rural economy survives; and if the rural economy survives, the country’s economy grows stronger,” Dighole added.

Published – 31 May 2026 09:43 IST