BHUBANESWAR: As the skyrocketing onion prices have left consumers worried and the state government exploring possibility of market intervention by lifting the key kitchen staple from Central buffer stock, the common question that has now hit everyone is what happened to the Onion Mission?
In a similar situation in 2015 when onion price touched Rs 50 a kg in retail markets, the government announced to launch Onion Mission to tackle the teary vegetable shortage in the state.
While the mission remained a mere pronouncement, the Government never bothered to come to the rescue of the onion growers by ensuring them remunerative price through the market intervention scheme (MIS).
Apart from promising subsidised seeds to the farmers, the Government had announced creation of additional storage facility by constructing nearly 200 new cold stores for storage of onions.
Of 140 cold storages set up in the State since 2015, merely 35-40 are functional and 26 of the operational units have came up during the last three years.
Under the National Horticulture Mission (NHM), the onion storage structure receives 50 per cent subsidy limited to Rs 87,500.
The subsidy is given to farmers who grow onion in an area of one hectare of land. Marginal farmers, who cultivate onion in less than one-hectare land, do not qualify to receive this benefit.
Sources in the Directorate of Horticulture said only 187 storage facilities have been set up by the farmers under the mission in the last three years.
There are few takers for the storage houses as farmers have to first invest to complete the structure and be eligible for subsidy later. If banks come forward and finance the stores, more farmers can take the benefit of the mission, he said.
In the absence of credible data, it is assumed that onion crop was grown in about 35,000-40,000 hectare across the state.
However, the area under cultivation is fast declining as the farmers are not keen to take up the crop on commercial basis due to lack of support price.
The basic objective of MIS is to provide remunerative prices to farmers in case of glut in production and fall in prices. However, the MIS is implemented on specific request of the state government willing to share the loss with Central Government on 50:50 basis, official sources said.
As the state did not wish to take the financial burden to protect farmers from selling their produce at distress price, the farmers were forced to sell their harvest to private traders from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh at throwaway prices in the last rabi season.