Onion prices have crashed in Maharashtra. Potato prices have spiralled downwards in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and some other states. The crashing of onion and potato prices has once again highlighted the plight of Indian farmers who are compelled to destroy their crops. Would the farm laws introduced in 2020, and repealed a year later after farmers’ protest, have helped? The glut of onion, potato, tomato and other vegetables has become a regular phenomenon in India. Due to abundant production, onion prices crashed and farmers in Maharashtra have either been compelled to sell the onions at Rs 1 per kg or throw them on roads.
The woes of potato producers in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are no different from Maharashtra’s onion growers.
The rate of table potatoes has crashed between 60 to 76 per cent this year. Against the wholesale price of Rs 10 per kg last year, farmers in Punjab were struggling to get even Rs 4 per kg this year.
