Rotting onions to be converted into organic manure

The other company, Leaf Biotech from Thane, had sent a letter offering to convert the onions to manure, but did not pursue the matter further, Pagar said.

The Maharashtra Government had initiated the market intervention scheme through the federation on January 4 this year in wake of the onion glut. It had bought about 32 lakh quintals of the commodity till March 24 for about Rs 100 crore. The market rates were between Rs 100 to Rs 200 per quintal and the Government bought the onions for Rs 300 and Rs 350 per quintal, to provide relief to farmers.

In the last week of April, the Minister for Marketing Ganpatrao Deshmukh asked the officials to dispose of the commodity, after making last ditch efforts to auction it at lower prices.

Accordingly, the federation had announced auctions, but did not get any response. Later, about three lakh quintals of the rotting onions were sold for Rs 5 per quintal, Rs 24 per quintal and Rs 26 per quintal, depending on their quality. In some centres, the traders were allowed to grade the onions and choose better ones.

The onions will be taken in the next four days by respective traders for cattlefeed and fertilizer. If they fail to do so, the federation will be burdened with the additional quantity for disposal.

After the sale, the federation is now left with 5.60 lakh quintals of onions, out of which about 3 lakh quintals are to be converted into manure by Opel Agrotech Pvt Ltd at the procurement centres at Sinnar and Yeola. After the processing, the federation will be left with about 2.5 lakh quintals of onions for dumping in deserted spots in mountains and quarries away from human settlement.

In April last week, officials had given up hopes of selling the rotting onions and had prepared to dump the entire stock. However, following orders from the Minister, fresh efforts were made to conduct auctions, but they failed to evoke any response. The federation then sold some of the stocks at rock bottom prices to traders who approached it.