After waiting for almost two months, onion growers in Dagana finally got a market. The Department of Agricultural Marketing and Cooperatives recently made an arrangement with the vegetable vendors at the Centenary Farmers Market (CFM) in Thimphu. The vegetable vendors agreed to buy the spice at Nu 32 per kilogram. But the farmers are not happy with the price.
The farmers in Dagana have been drying the onions to prepare for storage with no sign of buyers. It was harvested in May. And the farmers say, some produce got spoiled.
But the recent plan to take it to Thimphu did not go down well with the farmers. They said the onions should fetch at least Nu 40 a kilo.
“We have to pay Nu 300 per labourer. And we have to hire at least 70 labourers to weed an acre of land. Until the harvest, we have to tend to the weeds four times including transplantation. It is expensive. So I decided not to sell my onions,” said Bhim Bdr. Tamang, a farmer from Tsendagang Gewog in Dagana.
Another farmer, Karna Bdr. Bal said: “The price is very less for us, but I am planning to sell it since the onions are already rotting.”
“The price is less and on top of that, we have to take the onions to the highway. The vegetable vendors told us that they will not buy small ones. Without any option, I agreed to sell my onions although it is a total loss,” said Sha Bdr. Golay, in Tsendagang Gewog.
Meanwhile, a representative from the CFM who met with the farmers said the onions are too small to fetch a good price.
“The onions are small. But the customers in Thimphu look for bigger ones. We agreed to pay Nu 32 for a kilogram if we collect from Dagana and pay Nu 35 if the farmers bring the produce to Thimphu,” said Dendup, a Vegetable Vendors’ Representative at the CFM in Thimphu.
The farmers have sold around 2,000 kilograms of onions so far.
More than 200 farmers in Dagana started growing onions on a mass scale in September last year after the agriculture minister encouraged farmers to grow more after India stopped exporting onions for a month last year. And the shortage hit the country hard. But with imported onions now easily available, the demand for local produce might continue to dwindle.
Pema Tshewang, Dagana
Edited by Tandin Phuntsho
