Onion growers' body seeks Rs 1 lakh per acre for crop damage due to rains
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Mumbai (PTI): An onion growers' association in Maharashtra has demanded a compensation of Rs 1 lakh per acre for farmers who lost their crop due to severe rainfall in the state last month.
Maharashtra is the largest onion-producing state in the country.
In a letter written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on May 29, the Maharashtra Rajya Kanda Utpadak Sanghatna also asked for "transparent" onion procurement by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED).
Maharashtra received unprecedented rainfall in May, it pointed out.
Onion-producing districts such as Jalgaon, Dhule, Nashik, Ahilyanagar, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Pune, Solapur, Beed, Dharashiv, Sangli, Buldhana, Akola, Parbhani and Jalna were severely affected by rains, the letter said.
Due to heavy rainfall across the state since May 6, there has been a significant damage to the onion crop across the state, said the letter signed by the association's president Bharat Dighole and its Nashik district chief Jaydeep Bhadane.
Many farmers lost their entire Rabi season crop before it could be harvested, it said, seeking a compensation of Rs 1 lakh per acre.
The association further said that onions which had been harvested but not stored were also damaged, and demanded a subsidy of Rs 2,000 per quintal for farmers who were forced to sell their crop at a low price.
"Due to continuous heavy rains, thousands of tons of onions have rotted in the fields, causing farmers losses to the tune of crores of rupees," it claimed.
"We urge the state government to urgently and accurately assess the damage and provide immediate compensation," the association said.
The NAFED and the National Cooperative Consumers' Federation should procure three lakh tons of onions for the central buffer stock directly from farmers through the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) at a minimum rate of Rs 3,000 per quintal, the letter said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
