Growers hit as onion price crashes

The farmers, who managed to get a good yield of onion are literally in tears as the prices of their produce have crashed.

Onion is the main crop in Shivani hobli and all the farmers are in distress. "The prices have crashed drastically. The government is not coming forward to our rescue. We have cultivated the crop by availing of loans and mortgaging gold. Now, we are in a vicious circle of loans as we are unable to repay it," farmer Prasad said.

"We cannot recover the invested money," said another farmer. "To clean one sack full of onion, we have to spend Rs 200. The cost of onion per bag is Rs 250 to Rs 280. We will not fetch any profit with the crash in price," said farmers Prasad and Revanna.