The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited has purchased 18,743 quintals of onions from the market, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the assembly on Thursday.
Fadnavis was replying to Nationalist Congress Party leader Chhagan Bhujbal’s demand for asking NAFED to directly purchase onions from farmers. Growers in the state have raised concerns over the falling prices of the key kitchen staple in the wholesale market.
The price per kilogram of onion came down to Rs 2 to Rs 4 on Monday at Maharashtra’s Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), Asia’s biggest onion market, prompting angry farmers to stop the auction of the bulb.
Three Farmers Producers Organisations (FPOs) have been entrusted with the task of buying onions on behalf of NAFED, said Fadnavis. The FPOs have already started 10 procurement centres and have been told to open more on APMC premises, Fadnavis told the Lower House. He said NAFED has purchased 18,743 quintals of onions from the market.
NAFED, an apex organisation under the Union Ministry of Agriculture, deals with marketing cooperatives for agricultural produce in India. Onion prices will stay depressed till the arrival of the long shelf life rabi or winter crop in the markets in mid-March, experts have said.
There is a supply glut in the market which has led to events like farmers getting a pittance of their input costs for the produce, they said. Last month, a farmer from Maharashtra’s Solapur district earned a profit of Rs 2.49 against the sale of 512 kg of onions to a trader in the district.
