Mumbai: Onion farmers across the country endured a year of deep financial distress in 2025 due to what a farmers’ body has described as sustained and damaging intervention by the Centre in the onion market. The Maharashtra State Onion Growers Farmers’ Association has accused the government of suppressing prices through its procurement and buffer stock policies, pushing growers into losses, debt, and despair.

Bharat Dighole, founder president of the Nashik-based association, said onion prices throughout 2025 remained consistently below the cost of production, making farming economically unviable for lakhs of growers. He alleged that government actions, rather than market forces, were primarily responsible for this situation.

Prices Below Cost of Production

According to the association, the cost of producing onions in 2025 ranged between ₹22 and ₹25 per kilogram, factoring in seeds, fertilisers, labour, irrigation, transport, and storage losses. However, farmers were rarely able to realise these rates in the market.

Dighole cited data compiled from agricultural produce market committees (APMCs) across Maharashtra, India’s largest onion-producing state, to show how prices fluctuated far below sustainable levels throughout the year. The average prices received by farmers were:

• ₹20 per kg in January
• ₹22 in February
• ₹14 in March
• ₹8 in April
• ₹9 in May
• ₹13 in June
• ₹12 in July and August
• ₹9 in September
• ₹10 in October
• ₹12 in November
• ₹14–15 per kg between December 1 and 15
• Around ₹18 per kg after December 15

“These prices are far below production costs and are the main reason behind farmers’ losses and rising indebtedness,” Dighole said in a statement, adding that many farmers were forced to sell their produce at distress prices simply to clear immediate expenses.

Allegations Over Buffer Stock Procurement

The farmers’ body has placed particular blame on the government’s onion buffer stock policy. According to Dighole, despite adequate availability of onions in the domestic market, the Centre procured around three lakh tonnes through agencies such as the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation (NCCF) to build buffer stocks.

He alleged that instead of procuring onions directly from farmers at remunerative prices, the agencies relied on intermediaries, contractors, and private entities. This, he claimed, opened the door to large-scale irregularities, financial misconduct, and exclusion of genuine farmers from the procurement process.

“The buffer stock was created in the name of farmers, but the farmers themselves were bypassed,” Dighole alleged, claiming that the system benefited middlemen rather than producers.

Market Flooding and Price Suppression

The association further alleged that onions from the buffer stock were released into the domestic market at very low prices at multiple points during the year. According to Dighole, this continuous release prevented any meaningful price recovery, even during periods when market rates would normally rise.

“This destroyed every possibility of price recovery and forced farmers to sell onions at a loss,” he said, describing the process as a “planned conspiracy to suppress prices”.

He alleged that the buffer stock mechanism, which is officially meant to stabilise prices for both farmers and consumers, had effectively turned into a “broker-protection scheme”. According to the association, substandard and “bogus” purchases were made, benefiting a small group of contractors and agencies while farmers bore the brunt of the losses.

Social Impact and Farmer Distress

Beyond the economic impact, Dighole highlighted the severe social consequences of the prolonged price slump. He claimed that many onion growers were pushed deeper into debt, with some reaching the brink of suicide due to mounting loans and the inability to recover production costs.

“The farmer was pushed into debt, many reached the brink of suicide, while the government kept projecting success through statistics,” he alleged, accusing authorities of ignoring ground realities faced by cultivators.

Farmers’ Demands and Protest Warning

The Maharashtra State Onion Growers Farmers’ Association has put forward a series of demands, warning of statewide and nationwide protests if the government fails to respond.

Key demands include:

• Compensation through direct subsidy to farmers for losses incurred during 2025
• A high-level judicial inquiry into onion buffer stock procurement and distribution during the year
• A financial probe into agencies and private entities involved in procurement for NAFED and NCCF
• Criminal action against officials, contractors, and middlemen found guilty of irregularities
• A legally guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) for onions, linked to actual production costs

Dighole said that if these demands are ignored, farmers are prepared to intensify their agitation. Proposed protest measures include shutdowns of market committees, demonstrations outside NAFED and NCCF offices, and a national-level farmers’ movement culminating in protests in Delhi.

A Warning for 2026

Calling 2025 “a year of losses, debt, humiliation and betrayal” for onion growers, Dighole warned that farmers would not remain silent if similar policies continue in 2026.

“This is not just an onion issue, but a question of farmers’ survival,” he said, stressing that unless pricing and procurement policies are fundamentally reworked, the crisis facing onion growers could deepen further in the coming year.