ગુજરાતી
English
Dilip Patel
Ahmedabad
Farmers are currently selling onions at ₹3 per kilogram. The cost incurred by farmers stands at ₹10 per kilogram. When factoring in potential profit margins and land rental costs, a sale price of ₹12 to ₹15 per kilogram is required to generate a profit. Experts predict a strong possibility that onion farmers in Gujarat could face total losses amounting to ₹260 crore.
Approximately 45–50 percent of Gujarat’s onion production originates in Bhavnagar—the constituency of Agriculture Minister Jitu Vaghani—yet farmers in this region are suffering heavy financial losses.
In May 2026, the Central Government increased the procurement rate for onions intended for buffer stocks to ₹15.80 per kilogram. However, onions in Gujarat are currently being sold at a price lower than this benchmark.
Farmers incur cultivation costs ranging from ₹1.5 lakh to ₹2 lakh per hectare. Based on this calculation, the cost of production per kilogram ranges from ₹6.50 to ₹7.
If the value of the farmers’ own labor is also taken into account, the actual cost of production rises to between ₹10 and ₹10.50 per kilogram.
During the summer season, onions were sown across 10,950 hectares. Assuming an average yield of 24 tonnes per hectare, the total expected production stands at 260 million kilograms (26 crore kg). Consequently, if a loss of ₹10 per kilogram is assumed, the total estimated financial loss could amount to ₹260 crore.
However, Gujarat’s Agriculture Minister, Jitu Vaghani, has not yet announced any relief measures.
Typically, onion sowing during the summer season covers an area of 11,128 hectares; however, in May 2026, sowing took place across 10,947 hectares. Despite this reduction in the cultivated area, farmers are still failing to secure remunerative prices for their produce.
On average, each hectare has the potential to yield between 25 and 30 tonnes of produce.
Agriculture expert and farmer leader Dahyabhai Gajera notes that while the Agriculture Department regularly releases statistics regarding onion cultivation, it fails to conduct any actual field surveys to assess the ground reality. Random statistics are being released. In reality, the actual onion production in Gujarat is double the figures provided by the Department of Agriculture.
According to the Department of Agriculture’s estimates, 2,626,049 tons of onions were expected to be produced across 88,950 hectares during the Rabi season of 2025-26.
For the winter season of 2024-25, production was expected to reach 3,033,985 tons, with 319,240 tons specifically projected across 10,910 hectares. Thus, the Department of Agriculture projected a total annual production of 3,156,780 tons for the entire year.
Sowing was carried out across 119,000 hectares.
The Department of Agriculture had stated that the estimated onion production in Gujarat for the year 2024-25 stood at 2.487 million tons (24.87 lakh tons).
Estimated Production (in million tons)
2020 – 1.65 million (16.5 lakh)
2021 – 1.78 million (17.8 lakh)
2022 – 2.05 million (20.5 lakh)
2023 – 2.22 million (22.2 lakh)
2024 – 2.36 million (23.6 lakh)
2025 – 2.487 million (24.87 lakh)
2026 – 2.5 to 2.6 million (25 to 26 lakh)
The highest onion production occurs in the districts of Bhavnagar, Amreli, Rajkot, Junagadh, and Surendranagar. The Bhavnagar district alone accounts for 50 percent of Gujarat’s total production. (Google Translation from Gujarati; please refer to the original report.) 
