Mysuru: Agricultural land devoted to onion cultivation, particularly small sambar onion, has been on a steady decline in Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts.Thousands of farmers in Hanur, Yelandur, Chamarajanagar, Gundlupet taluks, and Nanjangud, HD Kote, and T Narasipura taluks had switched to the sambar onion variety from water-intensive maize and sugarcane.
Utilising borewell pumpset irrigation, a majority of small and marginal farmers in the twin districts had cultivated the sambar variety on 4,317 hectares of land, which fetched them a decent price of Rs 4,000 per quintal. However, falling prices in retail markets, rising production cost, scarcity of labourers, pest infestation, and a lack of storage facilities have only discouraged cultivation, leading to a demand-supply gap and bringing down the area of cultivation to 1,717 hectares in the twin districts. These factors proved to be strong headwinds, though farmers still managed to maintain yields of 20-25 quintals per hectare.“I used to cultivate onions on three acres every year, but this year, I have reduced cultivation to just half an acre as the price of the sambar variety has not stabilised. Buyers are offering only Rs 750 to 1,000 per quintal, which does not even cover production and maintenance costs,” said Puttaswamy of Kirugunda village in Nanjangud taluk.Price per quintal of sambar variety onion has hovered between Rs 750 and Rs 1,000 in the wholesale market for the last eight months, said Madhusudan, the assistant director of horticulture, Chamarajanagar.
