State plans market intervention

NCP President Sharad Pawar, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal were scheduled to personally call on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Wednesday to argue the case of onion growers as well as the problems faced by the cooperative sugar factories.

The delegation is expected to seek the involvement of National Agriculture Federation (NAFED) with the Maharashtra State Cooperative Marketing Federation in the proposed intervention on a 50:50 basis, immediate removal of quantitative restrictions and time limitation. The State leaders will also demand a long term export policy and fixation of a purchase limit of one lakh tonne for a initial period with Maharashtra Cooperation Marketing Federation as the nodal agency on behalf of the Centre to implement the scheme.

In his note submitted earlier to the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation, state cooperation secretary Umesh Sarangi stated that in view of the bumper crop and falling prices, the State Government has already provided Rs 10 crore for operation of the market intervention scheme and is prepared to form a corpus on a 50:50 basis with the Centre and share the loss or profit.

Following a law and order problem at Lasalgaon, Asia’s biggest onion producing centre in Nasik district owing to sharp fall in prices, Deshmukh had declared a market intervention price on the basis of cost of production and ruling market rates during the last five years.

“The cost of procurement including all incidental charges and excluding the price to be paid to the farmer is estimated at Rs 80 per quintal, while the ruling wholesale price is between Rs 200 to Rs 225 per quintal. Under such circumstances, the estimated loss per quintal,” the official said.

The official said, so far the state cooperative marketing federation, the nodal agency for implementing the market intervention scheme, has procured 21000 tonnes of onion from 17 centres in the State. As a result, the market prices of onion have not fallen further.

Subsequently, though following an appeal made by the DF Government the Centre lifted the ban on export of onion, there was absolutely no benefit to the local farmers since there was no market for India, as it was out of the export market for a long time. Secondly, the export plan was adversely affected due to lower export price fixed by the Centre. “The Centre conceded our demand, but the permission for export expires in January 2000 and as such, the Centre will have to relax the export period on a long term basis to enhance export purchase,” the official added.

On the onion production for the current year, the official said, while it was estimated at 15 lakh tonnes, even in other onion producing states too, a bumper crop is expected, resulting in crisis-like situation for the onion growers.