Avoiding Crisis: Nafed accelerates procurement process of onion

In a bid to stabilize the rates of Onion, the agri cooperative Nafed geared up to accelerate the process of procurement of red onions from the farmers. Last week it procured a huge amount of onions and the exercise is continuing this week as well, said one of the officials involved with the assignment.

As on 27th Feb 2023, Nafed procured 424.31 MT of Red Onion from eight centers in Nashik district of Maharashtra benefitting 116 farmers. In the last three days Nafed’s procurement progress is 637.83 MT benefitting 168 farmers.

“The agri cooperative is also looking forward to opening more centers to expedite the procurement. The organization is not leaving any stone unturned to ensure procurement of later-Kharif onions in Maharashtra to benefit the farmers”, said one of the top officials while talking with the Indian Cooperative correspondent.

On the direction of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, Nafed has initiated procurement of Late Kharif onion in the Nasik region for the benefit of farmers. Procured stock is being dispatched to Consumption centres outside Maharashtra.

Readers would recall that last week Nafed dispatched more than 200 MTs of Red Onion purchased from farmers in Nashik to Delhi. Purchases will further increase with additional centres being operated with the objective to stabilize the local rate of Onion.

On Monday, farmers forced the suspension of trading at Lasalgaon, India’s largest wholesale market for onions located in Maharashtra’s Nashik district, following a crash in prices, reads a media report.

Earlier, the news of farmers hogged the media attention related to stories of farmers being forced to make distress sales. One that made headlines was of Tukaram Chavan, a grower from Borgaon village in Solapur district’s Barshi taluka.

He received a cheque of Rs 2 after the deduction of all expenses towards the sale of his 500-quintal produce at the Solapur wholesale market.

This caught the attention of many, including former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and other opposition leaders and sought government intervention in the matter.

Meanwhile, praising the efforts of Nafed, ICA-AP Regional Director Balu Iyer wrote on his twitter wall, “No tears for either farmers or consumers! @nafedindia intervention in onion procurement to help address current distress faced by farmers and stabilize prices in months ahead”.