Onion sowing for the kharif season is unlikely to the impacted due to the late arrival of rains in parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat, the major producers of the commodity. Due to deficient rainfall during the monsoon in the onion growing areas, there was a fear that there would be shortage of onion in the market in the coming months.
“Due to the revival of rains in the last two weeks in the onion growing region, the sowing for the kharif crop has taken place. We expect a better crop in the coming season,” UKS Chauhan, managing director, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) told FE. The kharif onion produce would enter the market in November.
With the fear of a crop failure, the onion prices have been rising in the last few weeks. The retail prices of onion in Delhi has risen to Rs 13 – 15 per kg up from Rs 9 – Rs 11 per kg that prevailed about four weeks back. Currently, wholesale price of onion is in the range of Rs 700 to Rs 800 per quintal.
Nafed is one of the canalizing and monitoring agencies for exports of onion and a nodal agency for market intervention schemes for many commodities. Nafed has about 15,000-tonne onion stock, which the agency sells for stabilizing prices. The country’s onion output till March 2008 has risen sharply by more than 11% to a record 7.45 million tonne on increased acreage. India, which is the second largest producer of onion, has increased area under cultivation to 5.2 lakh hectare during 2007-08 up from 4.7 lakh hectare achieved during last year. The area under onion rose 10.3% mainly due to rise in acreage in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.