Farmer producer companies from Maharashtra have decided to get together and set up outlets in Delhi and other northern parts of India to prevent a hike in onion prices.
This is an effort undertaken by the All India Vegetable Growers Association (AIVGA) to prevent hoarding by traders. Shriram Gadhawe, president, AIVGA, who is in Chandigarh to meet officials of the Punjab Marketing Board, said a team is now looking out for possible locations to set up outlets where onions from farmer producer companies ( FPCs) will be directly sold to consumers.
?The board has granted the licence to the Junnar Taluka Farmer Producers Company to sell onions and soon all the 43-odd farmer producer companies under the Maharashtra Rajya Shetkari Company Federation will be supplying onions to these markets. Apart from outlets, onions will also be sold through online marketing where SFAC will declare the day’s rates online and orders will also be accepted,? he pointed out. Gadhawe is also the president of the federation. Outlets will begin functioning in the next couple of weeks and a couple of trucks are expected to supply onions from Maharashtra on a daily basis. Each truck can carry up to 15 tonnes of onions.
Puneet Singh Thind, president, Rashtriya Kisan Sanghatan also president of the Punjab/ Haryana unit of the AIVGA said that a direct marketing channel will bring down prices and force traders to bring their produce to the market and stop black marketing. ?At present, onion is in demand and therefore we have decided to begin with onion. Soon we will sell other commodities as well, ?he explained.
Outlets will be opened in Chandigarh, Mohali and Patiala and we are presently in the process of finalising locations for the outlets, Thind added. Punjab has been supplying potato seed to farmers in Maharashtra in addition to musk melon, apples and has also been getting commodities including onions from the state, he said. Rising onion prices have been a cause for concern in the last few days, especially in the capital. After a flash strike by workers in Nashik, the main onion-growing region of the country.
After a flash strike by workers in Nashik, one of the country’s biggest onion growing regions increased prices, Lieutinant Lt Governor Najeeb Jung had instructed the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) to purchase onion on behalf of Delhi government to build stocks.
Seventy mobile vans all across Delhi, where sale of onions and potatoes will take place at government determined rates. Gadhawe says he has been coordinating the purchase of onions for Nafed, adding that SFAC has approached Nafed to set up direct outlets for sale of onions.
?The FPCs have been supplying to traders. Now they will directly supply to the outlets,?Gadhawe said. Gadhawe said the association will supply onions through all possible channels including Nafed, vendors, traders and the online channel.