Farmers are strewing onions on the ground at Amaragol APMC yard in Hubballi on Saturday demanding MSP for onion crop. | Photo credit: KIRAN BAKALE
Farmers of Dharwad and adjoining areas, who have already suffered losses due to incessant rains affecting green gram and black gram crops, are now further burdened by rain affecting the quality of onion crop.
On Saturday, farmers protested to demand a minimum support price for produce.
Hundreds of farmers on Saturday gathered at the entrance of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) yard at Amaragolu in Hubballi, parked their tractors on the road and dumped several bags of onions on the ground to express their protest against what they called the apathy of officials and the government towards their plight.
Leading the protest, former vice-president of Dharwad Zilla Panchayat Shivanand Karigar claimed that shopping centers for buying green gram were not yet functional and demanded a minimum support price of ₹5,000 per quintal for onion. He also demanded compensation of ₹50,000 per acre for farmers of Dharwad district who suffered losses due to excessive rain.
Decrease
Onion prices saw a decline in the last week of September, especially after excessive rains affected the yield of various crops as well as the quality of onions. Since then there has been a downward trend and there have been several cases of damage to harvested onions due to continued rains in the North Karnataka region.
Excessive rains not only damaged the crop but also led to fungal infections of the crop which further reduced the yield in Kittur districts of Karnataka. According to a rough estimate, 50% of the onion crop is damaged and the rest is affected by diseases. Similar is the case in parts of Vijayanagar and Ballari districts.
From ₹100 per cent
At the APMC yard at Amaragol in Hubballi, one of the biggest onion markets, the minimum price for the local variety was just ₹100 per quintal and the average price was around ₹600 in the last fortnight. The Pune and Nashik variety is comparatively better but the price is lower than last year. During the corresponding period last year, the local variety was sold in the price range of ₹ 3,000 to ₹ 4,000, according to officials.
Another reason why onion prices have not recovered is the reported abundance in other parts of the country where onions obtained from the Hubballi market were regularly sent.
Published – 25 Oct 2025 21:07 IST
