Onion farmers in Maharashtra have pleaded to the state government to shift procurement from Farmer Producer Organisations to Agricultural Produce Market Committees.
They alleged corruption and exclusion of genuine cultivators in the current system. The farmer organisations alleged that the model currently followed by central agencies has enabled intermediaries to profit. The actual growers do not gain any profit, and the prices are not fair.
The central agencies are the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India and the National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India. Procurement through FPOs is the model that is currently being followed.
The onion farmers in Maharashtra said that the FPO-based model has failed to serve its intended purpose. They further explained that it has led to the manipulation and exclusion of genuine farmers.
They argued that procurement via APMCs would foster market transparency, boost competition, and ensure that real farmers benefit from open pricing mechanisms.
“The Union government must immediately intervene to prevent further malpractice,” they said.
Urging a revision of onion procurement guidelines to prioritise APMC-based purchasing, the farmer outfits have also sought the intervention of the Central Government. The Maharashtra government has formally requested the Centre to approve a shift to direct procurement via APMCs, according to sources.
According to the Economic Times, state government sources confirmed that the procurement process this year did not commence as scheduled, leaving farmers without institutional support.
"NAFED and NCCF were supposed to procure 10 per cent of the scheduled quantity in April and 45 per cent in May. Had they followed this timeline, about 1.65 lakh tonnes of onions would have been procured and safely stored," said Bharat Dighole, president of the Maharashtra State Onion Producers' Association.
Over 3,000 hectares of onion cultivation got damaged due to unseasonal showers between May 5 and 21, according to preliminary estimates from the state revenue department. The loss might run into thousands of tonnes, with an average productivity of 400 quintals per hectare.
