Bumper onion crop in Rajkot

The market yards in these two talukas are now flooded with onions. quot;The yards are now prepared to deliver truck loads of onions anywhere in the country or where ever they are required,quot; district collector Pravin Trivedi stated. quot;And the prices quoted per kg now is not more than Rs 10 anywhere in the region. quot;Rajkot district can now supply at least 100 tons of onion daily and we have already made arrangements for dispatch to Orissa and other areas facing scarcityquot;.

Agriculture department officials informed that the Rajkot district has produced about 1.27 lakh tons of onions as a rabi crop and 21,245 metric tons as a kharif crop. Besides, green onions, which had almost disappeared from the markets in the past few weeks, as the region, along with the rest of the country reeled under an unprecedented vegetable crisis, are now available aplenty.

This bumper production of Rajkot district is expected to meet the scarcity caused due to crop failure in Mahuva and Talaja talukas of Bhavnagar district which are the largest onion growing areas in the country. Less rains during the monsoon have led to this crop failure in the Rajkot district.

Agriculture department sources said that farmers in Mahuva and Talaja are going in for transplantation of crop after a spell of good rain after the monsoon but the crop can be harvested only in December end. Till then, however, the Rajkot crop will keep up the supply.

Meanwhile, with tons of onions daily coming to the yards at Upleta and Dhoraji, the rates of onion over the last few days have fallen. The rate a fortnight back was around Rs 20 per kg which fell to Rs 13.20 per kg last week and on Thursday it was quoted at around Rs 10 per kg. They are expected to fall more.

Even in Rajkot city, prices had stabilised at Rs 10 per kg at some retailers.