To improve shelf-life of onions and reduce storage losses, the government is aiming to irradiate 5000 tonne of the vegetable this year which will be procured from farmers for buffer stocking under the price stabilisation fund.
Last year as part of a pilot only 1200 tonne of onion was irradiated using gamma rays and the protocol was developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). The BARC has developed onion-specific irradiation and cold storage system which extends storage life of ‘rabi’ onion upto 7.5 months.
According to Nidih Khare, secretary, department of consumer affairs, the irradiation of onion reduces storages losses to only 10% from the prevailing level of 25% and the government is looking at expanding presence of irradiation facility built in collaboration with BARC currently at Lasalgaon, Nashik, the hub of the onion trade in the country.
The government is also looking for transport the procured onion after irradiation to cold storage close to consuming centres such as the national capital region of Delhi from Lasalgaon, which is likely to reduce transportation losses. Another object of irradiation is to control losses due to sprouting of onions during storage.
“This protocol would address long term challenges of onion storage and would lead to reduction of post-harvest losses and help market price fluctuations,” Khare told FE.
Last month, the government directed National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) and farmers’ cooperative Nafed to initiate procurement of 0.5 million tonne (MT) of onion at market price for the buffer from the farmers as rabi harvest has started to arrive in the market. Onion purchased is used as buffer stocking as well as intervention by way of simultaneous procurement and disposal to curb in possibility of spike in prices.
In 2023, Nafed and NCCF had purchased 0.64 MT of onion from farmers for the buffer.
“The continuous procurement by the NAFED and NCCF have guaranteed remunerative prices for onion farmers all through the year in 2023,” according to an official note. It stated that the recent decision to extend onion export prohibition has been necessitated by the overall domestic availability against the prevailing international prices and global availability concerns,”.
The modal retail prices are currently ruling at Rs 30/kg against Rs 20/kg reported a year back. Retail inflation was 36.88% in March.
“The export prohibition on onions valid till March 31 has been extended until further orders,” said a Directorate General of Foreign Trade notification had stated last month.
To ensure transparency in the procurement, the government will introduce direct benefit transfer (DBT) for ensuring payments to the farmers within a week of purchase of onion at market rate by the designated agencies for the buffer from this season.
Currently the government is buying tur dal directly from the farmers through DBT mode.