Maharashtra has decided to create additional storage capacity for onion crop. Every year, there is a shortage of onions during the monsoon and post-monsoon periods and so the state government has established ?onion chawls? (warehouses) for storing the crop in anticipation of a bumper harvest.
Milind Akare, MD, Maharashta State Agriculture Market Produce Committee (MSAMB), said this year, an additional 12 lakh mt of onion will be cultivated in the state, because of which storage capacity will be required to prevent hoarding that may result in spike in onion prices. The government has set up facilities for 15 lakh mt of onions. This includes 8 lakh mt that has been set up through grants from the government and 7 lakh mt from private sources. The country has storage facilities for around 39 lakh mt. The per month demand of onion in the country is about 12 lakh mt.
Early this week, Lasalgaon Agriculture Market Produce Committee ( APMC) , a major trading centre for onions, and 13 other wholesale markets in Nashik were closed over a row between traders and manual labourers over wage hike.
This resulted in onion prices rising in some parts of the country, which led to the Centre urging the state government to intervene and resolve the dispute.
The state government has taken lesson from this experience. Onion prices have not seen sharp movements in the last few days as feared due to supplies continuing from cold storage stocks.
Radhakrishna Vike Patil, state agriculture and marketing minister, has, however, indicated that sudden raids will be conducted to prevent onion hoarding by traders.
Following the strike by traders at Nashik, Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan had warned that strict action will be taken against those who indulge in hoarding.
The Union agriculture ministry has also asked states to take stringent action against hoarders as the prices of onions, potatoes and tomatoes continue to rise.
Senior officials at the Centre pointed out that although production of onions, potatoes and tomatoes is higher than last year, a shortfall in supply is either due to hoarding or mismanagement by onion-producing states.
Akare said the government is also encouraging onion processing and the industries for onion paste, onion flakes and irradiation are coming up in Jalgaon, Nashik, Dhule, Ahmednagar and Pune.