Nashik, March 2: Protesting farmers forced authorities to suspend auctions of onions at Agricultural Produced Market Committee (APMC) in Lasalgaon, the country’s largest wholesale market, on Monday. Farmers were agitating as onion prices have been going down for quite some time. They expressed unhappiness over declining prices of the bulb and sought the government's intervention in the matter. Onion Is An Essential Ingredient in Indian Food; Know Health Benefits.

Road blockades and protests were held in Lasalgaon, Dewla, Pimpalgaon, Yeola and Andersul in the district, due to which auctions for the day were halted. According to traders, constant slide in onion prices was mainly because of the uncertainty surrounding exports of the bulb. In view of the shooting onion prices in September last year, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry had suspended the export of the bulb.

While Union Minister of Food and Civil Supplies Ram Vilas Paswan had tweeted about the withdrawal of the ban, notification is yet to be published. "A notification on the lifting of the export ban is yet to arrive, leading to fall in prices, which resulted in protests and agitations by farmers," an official was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.

"Onions were auctioned at Rs 900 minimum, Rs 1,652 maximum and Rs 1,450 average per quintal at Lasalgaon AMPC today," he added. The fall in prices led to angry members of Maharashtra Onion Growers' Association and APMC farmers stopping auctions. As part of the protests, farmers blocked the Nashik-Aurangabad Highway while some threw their onion stock on the

streets in Vinchur.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 02, 2020 04:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).