Onions without tears

Policy missteps responsible for rising prices

The chronic volatility of onion prices is evident once again though there is hardly any pressing reason for it barring inept mismanagement of available supplies. The wholesale prices have nearly doubled in the past week or so in the country’s biggest onion market at Lasalgaon in Maharashtra. The retail prices in many parts of the country have soared by even higher margins. This is in contrast to the situation a couple of years ago when the growers had to dump their produce on roads because of dismally low returns. Market sources attribute the current price flare-up to crop loss in