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Mumbai : The government has started taking concrete steps in the direction of increasing the income of the farmers of India and providing them fair prices for their crops. It is reported that the BJP-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will buy about 3 lakh tonnes of onions from every corner of the country after the arrival of winter crops in the market, so that the farmers can get their crop. They can get fair price and their income should increase. Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal has said on Thursday that government agencies will buy three lakh tonnes of onions after the arrival of the winter crop. Last year, the total purchase of Rabi crop was 2.5 lakh tonnes.
Efforts to get fair price to the farmers
Union Minister Piyush Goyal said that in order to ensure fair price for the onion crop of the farmers, I have already ordered to increase the purchase of onions from 2.5 lakh tonnes last year to 3 lakh tonnes this year. He said that the National Co-operative Consumer Federation and the National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) have also been instructed to buy the stock of ‘late sown Kharif’ crop, but the produce is not available in the markets as of now.
Onion growers of Maharashtra are demonstrating
Farmers are protesting in Maharashtra after a sharp fall in onion prices last month. Other markets, including the biggest market at Lasalgaon in Nashik district, have been closed and onions have also been thrown away by farmers. Farmers claim that they are getting very low price for the crop, which is only a fraction of their cost and they are demanding intervention of state agencies in view of the widespread pressure.
Why did onion prices fall?
Farmers attribute the fall in onion prices to prolonged monsoon and high prices of ‘late sown kharif’ onions in the last two seasons, due to which many farmers have sold onions with short shelf life or less. Special onion variety has been sown which remains good for a long time. Apart from this, the reason for this decline has also been attributed to the effect on exports, as major producers like Bangladesh have started growing their onions.
The Maharashtra government had agreed to give compensation to the farmers
According to media reports, the Maharashtra government had agreed to pay a compensation of Rs 300 per quintal to onion farmers in the beginning of March amid a fall in prices. The rabi onion crop harvested during April-June accounts for 65 per cent of India’s onion production and meets consumer demand till the kharif crop is harvested in October-November. The total onion production is estimated to increase from 26.64 million tonnes in the previous year to 31.7 million tonnes in the year 2021-22 and the Center procured 2.50 lakh tonnes.
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