Coimbatore : The 2018 ended on a bad note to small onion (shallot) growers, forcing them to sell the produce for Re one per kg with another kg being offered under buy-one kg and get another kg free.

The farmers, belonging to Tamilaga Vyavasayigal Sangham, led by its President, S Palanisamy, arrived with bags of shallots near the district collectorate and started calling for the customers.

The action was to bring the sharply declining prices to the attention of the District Collector and intervene in controlling the prices, they said.

Nearly 2,000 farmers have cultivated small onion in the district, which led to over production, resulting in price collapse in a week’s time from Rs 20, Palanisamy said.

Usually the farmers used to dump or throw on roads the over production, but this time they took to a new way to seek attention so that general public can also be benefited, he said.

Many were seen buying the shallots from the farmers.

The farmers submitted a petition to Collector, T N Hariharan and sought his intervention to check the falling prices and fix a Minimum Support Price with immediate effect.