From a glut to scarcity

The situation has been reversed in six months. Adverse climate has destroyed the kharif onion crop not only in Maharashtra, but in the entire onion-growing belt of the country. The shortfall in the production is estimated to be 35 per cent in the rest of the country.

The area under kharif onions was reduced by 16 per cent due to delayed monsoon in the major onion-growing pockets. In 1996-97, the area under kharif onions in the country was 69,500 hectares, which fell to 58,000 hectares in 1997-98. In Maharashtra, it was alarmingly reduced from 11,000 hectares to 5,000 hectares. Further, bad weather in October, November and the first week of December damaged the crop.

Purple blotch and Stemphylium blight diseases affected the crop, blasting the leaves and resulting in poor bulb development. The production of the kharif onions which are harvested around October-November fell from 1.50 lakh tonnes in 1996-97 to 40,000 tonnes in Maharashtra and from nine lakh tonnes to 5.82 lakh tonnes in the rest of the country.

As a result, wholesale prices skyrocketed from Rs 150 per quintal in June 1997 to Rs 1,751 per quintal in December a record high. Retail prices also rose to a record high of Rs 25-30 per kilo in metropolitan cities.

Maharashtra tops in onion production in the country with an annual output of over 12 lakh tonnes, followed by Gujarat with about six lakh tonnes per annum and Uttar Pradesh with 5.13 lakh tonnes. Maharashtra plays a crucial role as onions are harvested thrice in a year; during the kharif season in October-November; the late kharif season in January-February; and the rabi season in May-June. In other onion-growing States, except Orissa and Gujarat, the crop is grown only in the kharif and the rabi seasons. Attempts are being made by the National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation NHRDF to encourage farmers in Haryana and Rajasthan to cultivate the crop thrice a year.

Rabi onions, harvested in the fair season have a better shelf life, of five to six months, also the rabi crops only takes about six days for drying and curing as opposed to the three weeks needs to treat the kharif and late kharif crops. Maharashtra has about 32,000 hectares under rabi onions and the production is around 6.15 lakh tonnes and 11,000 hectares under kharif producing 1.5 lakh tonnes and 24,000 hectares under late kharif producing 4.80 lakh tonnes. The kharif onions have a high moisture content and the lowest shelf life, of a fortnight to one month. The kharif crop is also subject to the vagaries of the monsoon.

The rabi crop ensures supply till the kharif variety is harvested in October. The lean season is between September to February, when the rabi stocks are exhausted and the kharif crop has to tide over the lean supply season. At this time the prices go up and continue rising till the late kharif crop is harvested in January-February.

Apart from the considerable national demand, about 10 per cent of the onion crop is exported, mainly to the Gulf, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Singapore. The NAFED buys stocks from the wholesale yards and exports the crop and also issues clearances for private exporters, after fixing the minimum export price. This season the exports too were affected. They touched an all time low of 2,000 tonnes in December 1997, as against 23,000 tonnes in December 1996. There have been also been demands to ban onion exports to control domestic prices. Onion exporters, however, point out that there have hardly been any exports in the recent months due to the poor quality of onions and that a ban would harm their interests and push their clients to turn to other countries, like Pakistan.

Storage is another problem that hurts onion growers. According to estimates, 30 to 40 per cent of the crop is destroyed during storage and handling.

Because onions cannot be refrigerated, the crop requires dry and airy storage sites, which only big farmers and traders can afford.

The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, has devised a method of irradiating onions to increase their shelf life and make them disease free.

An irradition plant for onions in Nashik, at an estimated cost of Rs 8 crore is on the cards. However, agricultural experts feel that irradiating onions would not be feasible as the cost would be 50 paise to Re 1 per kilo and the irradiation plant would require a large quantity of onions at a time. In Nashik, an entrepreneur tried to dehydrate onions by setting up a plant but the plant had to be shut down when his first consignment to one of the European countries was rejected as worms had formed in the powder.

The present situation is likely to ease within a fortnight, with the arrival of the late kharif onions. This despite the estimated shortfall of about 21 per cent in the country.

But there is no hope of any respite from the fluctuations in onion prices as nearly 10 per cent of the rabi onion nurseries have been damaged by adverse climate. This would in turn affect rabi onion production by 16 per cent, spilling the problem over to next year, unless prevented by timely rains and a good kharif harvest next monsoon. Also bettter post-harvest management could improve crop availability. According to NAFED8217;s Nashik branch manager, S.M. Pillai, proper drying and curing would reduce the loss in storage and transportation. He said NAFED had constructed model godowns at Pimpalgaon-Baswant in the Nashik district where about 3,000 tonnes of the crop is stored for exports.

According to him, the NHRDF was constructing model godowns at Lasalgaon which will be hired out to farmers from next year. The NHRDF has already created a new onion pocket in Firozpur-Zirkha about 4,000 hectares and Nandrampur-Bas about 500 hectares in Gurgaon district of Haryana as well as in Khairathal about 2,000 hectares in Alwar district of Rajasthan this kharif season. The new areas ensured regular supply of onions to Delhi and surrounding areas, where the situation could have been worse.