(a) whether there is a bumper onion crop estimate in the current season in the country;
(b) if so, the details thereof, State/UTwise; and
(c) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to ensure proper remunerative prices for their produce and provide domestic/foreign marketing facility to the farmers?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE (SHRI MOHANBHAI KUNDARIA)
(a) & (b): No, Madam. As per the first advance estimates released by Department of Agriculture & Coopn., total onion production during 2014-15 is expected to be around 193.57 lakh tonnes. The production of onion during 2013-14 was 194.02 lakh tonnes. Details of onion production in the country, State/UT wise during 2013-14 and 2014-15 (provisional) are given at Annexure-I.
(c): To ensure proper remunerative prices for onion produce and provide domestic/foreign marketing facility to the farmers, the Government takes several measures as:
# Providing assistance for development of infrastructure for post harvest management such as storages, terminal markets, wholesale markets, rural primary market, apni mandies, etc.
# Permitting direct marketing, contract farming, setting up of private markets, farmer consumer markets and e-markets.
# Implementing Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) for procurement of agricultural and horticultural commodities including onion, under which losses, if any, are shared between the Central Government and the State Government concerned on 50:50 basis. National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED) is a Central Agency implementing MIS operations of agricultural commodities including onion.
# Providing market information to farmers on prices and arrivals of agricultural commodities in regulated markets on AGMARKNET portal to enable the farmer to get better remunerative prices.
# Export of onion is free subject to a Minimum Export Price (MEP) announced by the Government from time to time. To boost exports, recently a new scheme has been launched namely “Merchandize Exports from India (MEIS)” under Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20, wherein the exporters/farmers are incentivized for export of their goods/products to a specified markets including onion.