Overview

• Heavy pre-monsoon showers in May battered Maharashtra’s onion belt, flooding fields in Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon, Pune, Solapur, Beed, Sangli and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and spoiling standing crops.
• Onion farmers led by Krishna Dongare demand ₹1 lakh per acre in relief and a ₹2,000 per quintal subsidy, pressing for rapid panchanama surveys to quantify losses.
• The Nashik Onion Producers’ Association has written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and NAFED to secure fair procurement and immediate financial support.
• Farmer groups report thousands of quintals have rotted in storage or washed away before collection, raising fears that remaining produce will fetch depressed prices.
• Analysts warn that without buffer stock creation or emergency procurement, the state could face a supply gap that drives retail onion prices higher.