THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: To check soaring onion prices, the state will go for urgent market intervention to make it available at Rs 45 per kg. State agencies – Supplyco, Horticorp and Consumerfed – will procure 1800 tonnes of onions from Nafed.
Kerala has also approached Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra for direct procurement of tomato, onion and potato from farmers. An urgent meeting by the ministers of finance, civil supplies, agriculture and cooperation on Monday decided to procure 1,800 tonnes of onion from Nafed.
While Supplyco will procure 1,000 tonnes, Consumerfed and Horticop will procure 300 and 500 tonnes respectively. The government is hopeful that the distribution can begin from November 3. The state has also urged Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra to facilitate direct procurement of tomato, onion and potato through Supplyco, Horticorp and Consumerfed. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to his counterparts Edappadi Palaniswami and Uddhav Thackeray, requesting to facilitate these agencies to directly procure TOP crops from farmers and farmers producers organisations in these states.
The chief minister said that Nafed is handling the procurement. He pointed out that there’s already a Central scheme for direct procurement of vegetables including tomato, onion and potato. The project was announced in the 2018-19 Union Budget, with Rs 500-crore outlay to stabilise the supply and prices of TOP crops. Pinarayi pointed out that Kerala has a robust system of procurement through agencies like Supplyco, Horticorp and Consumerfed.
These agencies can directly procure tomato, onion and potato from farmers and farmers Producers Organisations (fPOs) in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu by paying remunerative prices. It will help in ironing out volatility in prices faced by consumers. Being a consumer state, Kerala depends substantially on arrival of commodities from other states. In view of price rise, there’s a need for intervention in procurement. There’s an urgent need to reduce volatility in price movements and ensure price stability to protect consumers, he added.