SANGHAR, Dec 22: Over-production has pushed the price of onions down to rock bottom level and the growers do not know what to do with their crop.

The onion growers told this correspondent that the Sindh agriculture department had made no reliable assessment, regarding production of the province’s main vegetable crop, and the provincial government had made no arrangements for export of the commodity.

According to the growers, the massive onion production was owing to unavailability of water during the cotton growing season (March-May).

They said that water was made available in July, a long time after the cotton sowing season had passed, adding that the people cultivated onions, tomatoes and chilies without consideration of the market demand.

Currently, a truck load of 120 bags of onions, weighing about 110kg each, was sold for Rs15,000 to Rs22,000 in the district, depending on the quality of onions.

The growers also said that more onions were planted after the cotton crop, sown over a lesser area in August and early September, was hit by a mysterious disease and it did not recover despite repeated and costly remedial efforts.

The growers in the other areas of Sindh also, they said, were incurring financial losses because of the glut in onion production.

Many farmers said that after losing their cotton crop, they were unable to recover even the cost of production of the onion crop.

They demanded of the Sindh government to explore onion markets in foriegn countries as onion export could support the price of the commodity in the local market.