BONGABON, Nueva Ecija – Camilo De Guzman, 45, deferred for days harvesting of his onion hoping that farmgate price of P20 per kilo at the onset of the harvest season a few weeks back would later increase even if only a bit.
But the opposite happened.
“Hinihintay po namin sana ang magandang presyo e mas lalo pong bumababa,” De Guzman rued, forcing him to harvest the bulbs as the farmgate price for the best ones dropped to P15 to P16 a kilo.
“Wala na po kaming mapagpipilian kundi bunutin para bumalik lang po yung ibang puhunan,” he said.
De Guzman who has been in onion farming since childhood is among the thousands of onion farmers in Nueva Ecija who are now praying for government intervention to uplift their plight as harvest season is off to a “bad start.”
The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) said at least 21,086 farmers have planted onions in 11,502.84 hectares in 22 towns and cities of Nueva Ecija this year.
The biggest area is in this municipality, dubbed as the “Onion Capital of the Philippines,” with 2,319.10 hectares planted to red shallot (49.65 ha), yellow granex (590 ha) and red creole (1,679.45 ha).
This was followed by Gabaldon with 1,936.63 ha involving 2,647 farmers and San Jose City with 1,667.31 ha for 7,304 farmers, the OPA record showed.
De Guzman said he spends an average of P130,000, borrowed from nearby capitalist, for a hectare of onion. To profit, his produced should have been sold at P30 a kilo, he said.
Last year, he easily paid the loaned capital as he was able to “buy something for my children and the household” when his onion produce was pegged at P40 to P42 a kilo.
Agriculture Sec. Emmanuel Piñol blamed cartels in the sorry plight of onion farmers. He said he was receiving reports that private traders have contracted cold storage so that farmers will be forced to sell their produce even at a very low price.
He said the government is looking into this report.
