Chitradurga: Unable to find a proper rate for the onions she has produced, a farmer from Chitradurga made a fervent appeal to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to bail out farmers like her during the COVID-19 lockdown period.
Through a video message, which has now gone viral, the farmer from Katanayakanahalli in Hiriyur Taluk of the district explained her plight.
"I ask you, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, please respond to our plight and give us some relief. We are not asking you for money. Purchase the crop we have grown at a good price and do us a favour," the farmer said.
The grower said while the whole nation is under lockdown, no one has stopped eating right from the Prime Minister to the soldier and the doctors.
"Whether there is lockdown or not, the farmer has not stopped growing food," the woman said. As the video went viral, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa called the farmer Vasantha and said he has directed the deputy commissioner of Chitradurga district to speak to her and resolve the issue. He hailed Vasantha saying she is intelligent.
Elaborating her hardship, Vasantha said middlemen agree to pay Rs 250 per sack of onion whereas the production cost is Rs 500 to Rs 600.
"The bag used for packing costs Rs 45, the harvesting of onion filled in each sack costs Rs 35.
The onion seed costs Rs 1,400 and the fertilizer costs somewhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 6,000," she said.
This besides the labour cost involved right from sowing to harvest, to despatching to the storage room, packaging, and then transportation to the APMC Yard.
The crop cannot be stored for long for want of price because in this summer season the onion perish rapidly, the farmer said. "To grow each sack of onion, the expenditure itself is Rs 500 to Rs 600 but they (middlemen) are asking each sack of onion for Rs 250.
What else the option before the farmer other than committing suicide," she lamented.
