NITI Aayog to identify triggers for high onion prices

The agriculture division at the NITI Aayog has been asked to identify the triggers for price variation in the country’s onion market. And, to prepare a base paper on onion production.

On Tuesday, this newspaper had reported that according to the Aayog's rough estimate, the likely cost of market manipulation borne by onion consumers this year as compared to 2014 was around Rs 8,000 crore (rough unofficial figure).

On Wednesday, in a series of tweets, the Aayog said the Indian Council of Agricultural Research had been asked to focus on technological intervention for enhancing onion yield, and to identify and delineate potential non-traditional areas for diversifying production.

The department of agriculture will explore ways of creating additional storage capacity and develop a mechanism for market intelligence and an early price forecasting system.

Tuesday’s meeting convened by the Aayog and attended by officers from these and other agencies also discussed issues related to seasonal variation in production, impact of weather aberrations on production and price, storage at major production sites and ways to augment these, extending production to newer areas and buffer stocking for price stabilisation.

Prices in retail markets jumped sharply from the middle of August, due to a sudden fall in supply at the main wholesale market of Nashik.

Data from the department of consumer affairs shows that on September 30, the average retail price in the country was Rs 51 a kg, almost double that at the same period last year. In fact, between August 16 and August 30, there was a 50 per cent jump. The government swiftly decided to import around 10,000 tonnes and the first batch arrived a few days earlier. Prices do tend to move up during the June to September period as the rabi crop gets exhausted, while the early kharif harvest has yet to arrive. India is estimated to have produced 19.35 million tonnes in 2014-15, almost 0.5 mt less than in the previous year.