BHUBANESWAR: As the soaring price of onions continue to bring tears to the people, the State Government has virtually washed its hands of, terming the situation a national crisis.
Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain on Saturday attributed the scarcity to the effects of climate change that has impacted onion yield in the producing states.
“Nashik has produced around 10 quintal of onion per acre this year against the earlier output of three tonne. Though we are trying to stabilise the price through 291 fair price outlets, the situation is still uncontrolled,” he admitted.
Meanwhile, as onion touched Rs 150-a-kg, questions have been raised on Odisha’s claims to be an onion surplus State. As per the statistics of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment department, the State has produced nearly 3.78 lakh tonne of onion in 2018-19 against the requirement of around three lakh tonne. Where have the onions gone, asked both traders and consumers.
General secretary of Odisha Byabasayee Mahasangha Sudhakar Panda accused the Government of data fudging while farmers are struggling to get minimum support price for their produce.“The Government is lying about production figure of onions. The State produces only around 80,000 tonne and 75 per cent of it is procured by traders from neighbouring Chhattisgarh due to its proximity to the producing districts,” he said.
The department calculates the figure basing on the sale of onion seeds to farmers. But, farmers cannot really cultivate all the seeds as most of those are either consumed or damaged due to lack of support for cultivation, he observed.
Though the State claims that onion is produced in all most all districts, with Balangir, Angul and Kalahandi at the top, traders said 80 per cent of the crops from Balangir and Kalahandi are diverted to Raipur.
“It is an usual trade practice. Traders here find it easier to procure onions from Nashik, than Western districts. Farmers are not willing to take up onion farming due to lack of storage facilities. Attempts to set up humidity control facilities near the crop fields also did not take off,” they alleged.
The State Government had launched Onion Mission in 2015 to ensure increase in productivity and proper storage facility. The mission too failed to bring any significant change as neither the production could increase nor were storage facilities improved.
Panda said since September even as the Centre knew that such a scenario would arise due to crop loss following floods, no step was taken to manage the demand and supply gap.
‘Precious’ bulb stolen from shop, man files FIR
Cuttack: As onion went out of reach of the common man, around 10 kg of the precious bulb was stolen from a shop in Raisunguda market under Salepur police limits on Thursday night. Vegetable vendor Karunakar Barik approached Salepur police on Friday morning claiming that his onion stock of 10 kg kept in the shop was missing. In the FIR Barik stated, “As usual I left for my house after closing shop on Thursday night. On Friday morning, when I went to open the shop I found it door broken. Surprisingly, only onions were missing, while other vegetables were intact.”