In a mark of protest, Onion farmers in Andhra closed the gates of the Kurnool market yard and blocked the road on Wednesday demanding a better price for their products.
The Hindu reported:
As there were no takers for onions despite a steep fall in its price, to about Re. 1 per kg, irate farmers resorted to the protest paralysing traffic on the market yard road for more than an hour. Onion growers who brought heavy stocks to the market yard were angry as they could not sell even a few kg of the produce since yesterday.
The report adds that Kurnool Market Committee chairperson Samanthakamani assured the farmers of arranging purchase of onion at Rs 400 a quintal.
This is not the first time that such an incident has occurred in the state.
Last month, Kurnool farmers dumped their produce on the RTC Bus Stand Road and staged a ‘rasta roko’ in front of the Kurnool market yard.
Reports had then stated that farmers had brought nearly 300 lorry loads of onion to the market yard for three days and turned impatient as there were no takers.
During their protest, the farmers demanded that the government resort to market intervention to bail them out of the crisis.
Meanwhile, state agriculture minister Prathipati Pulla Rao asked farmers to take up organic farming.
Another report in The Hindu quotes the minister as saying that organic farming would promote their economic well-being and health and sale of organic farm produce would be easier and can be exported to other states.