VIJAYAWADA: With the retail price of onion shooting up to more than Rs 100 per kg in Andhra Pradesh, the State government has decided to step in and sell the vegetable at Rs 40 per kg through rythu bazaars in a phased manner from Friday.
Announcing this at a press conference in Kakinada on Thursday, Minister for Agriculture and Marketing Kurasala Kannababu said the government has placed an indent with the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) for 5,000 tonnes of onion.
NAFED has procured the vegetable from Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, among other places, and maintains a buffer stock to stabilise the market.
Kannababu said that of the 5,000 tonnes sought from NAFED, about 1000 tonnes are expected shortly. “In the first phase, onions will be sold at Rs 40 per kg in rythu bazaars in major cities, and subsequently, this will be done in the rest of the State as well,” the minister explained.
Onion prices, which were around Rs 80 per kg for the past week, are now between Rs 100 and Rs 110 in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and even Kurnool, from where onions are normally supplied to markets in the State.
Crop damage, low production led to onion shortage: Kannababu
On Thursday, at Kurnool Agriculture Wholesale Market Yard, only 1,457 quintals of the vegetable arrived, and the highest price was Rs 4,700 per quintal. Normally, about 12,000 quintals of onion reach the market daily. While the cost of onion at the market was less than expected, the retail price continued to rise. The minimum price at the market yard is Rs 720 per quintal, and the model price is Rs 2,900, said market yard secretary R Vijaya Lakshmi.
Explaining the reason the shortage of onions, Kannababu said heavy rains in Kurnool and other places resulted in crop damage, low production and poor arrivals in the market. “Onion is usually cultivated on 28,000 hectares in the State, but this time it was only cultivated on 25,000 hectares. Crops on 2,600 hectares were lost. The rains also damaged crops and reduced production in other parts of the country such as Maharashtra,” he said.
The minister further said that during the onion crisis last year, the government stepped in and sold it through a market intervention programme to stabilise the market. He maintained that the government gives equal importance to protecting the interests of farmers and consumers. Meanwhile, an increasing number of complaints are being made against traders for hoarding onions and creating a perception of scarcity to hike prices. “Traders are resorting to such methods to take advantage of the increasing gap between demand and supply,” said Sk Rafi, a businessman in Nellore.