NAFED steps in to tackle onion glut, buys for export

He opined that some traders and farmers were holding old stocks of ten to fifteen thousand tonnes of onions, which entered the market, enhancing the glut.

He added that there would be further improvement in the market within a week.Export of onions has been banned by the Central Government from January 12, when average prices were between Rs 1,200 – 1,500 per quintal as the commodity was in short supply following failure of the kharif crop.

The ban was lifted on March 4 at a time when the onion market was heading for a glut due to arrival of fresh lateKharif crop. The lifting of the ban had raised expectations of farmers, who hoped that the high-price trend would continue. However, when prices nosedived to Rs 250 per quintal they stalled auctions at Pimpalgaon-Baswant, Niphad and Lasalgaon. The situation has worsened with markets remaining closed for five days after Mahashivratri and another couple of days of holidays scheduled for the Holi festival.

Traders, as usual, quoted prices below Rs 300 per quintal, inviting the wrath of the farmers. The farmers, as usual, expected the government to intervene in the market for remunerative prices for their produce. The farmers had hit two ministers of the Manohar Joshi cabinet (Babanrao Gholap and Tukaram Dighole in June last when prices had fallen to Rs 150 per quintal.

According to the chairman of the Pimpalgaon-Baswant Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee, Tanaji Banker (a local Shiv Sena leader), local Congress leaders like Bhaskar Banker incited farmers to defame the Sena-BJP government in the stateirrespective of the fact that the state government had no role to play in imposing or lifting the export ban.