Expecting a possible drought-like situation, onion farmers have begun holding on to their stocks, leading to rise in prices of the vegetable.
Average onion prices at Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) in Nashik, the country’s biggest wholesale onion market, were R2,100 per quintal as barely 6,200 quintal arrived in the market on Monday. The situation was quite similar last week when modal prices stood at R1,975 per quintal with 8,500 quintal arriving in the market.
Senior officials from the National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF), however, allayed fears of the need to resow onion plantation and stated that the kharif plantation is likely to remain the same as last year.
According to NHRDF director RP Gupta, as farmers fear a drought-like situation, they are holding onto their crop. “Earlier, arrivals in the market were more since onions were wet and poor in quality. Now that the poor quality stock has been exhausted, the farmers can stock their onions for a longer period. There have been no rains in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka for the last 15 days. Therefore farmers have begun stocking their produce,” he said.
Industry experts have attributed two reasons for the price rise — the absence of rains and the crop damage due to unseasonal rainfall in the March-April period. Nanasaheb Patil, chairman of Lasalgaon APMC, said that the arrivals of onion have dropped from 12,000-14,000 quintal a day to 8,000-9,000 quintal because farmers are staying away from the market in hope of better prices. If this situation continues for another week, it could mean trouble for farmers and consumers as well, he said. Fears are being expressed on the need for farmers to go in for resowing operations.
According to NHRDF officials, kharif onion is usually planted on some 10-12 lakh hectares and the plantation is expected to remain the same this year.