Question : Rise in Onion Prices

(a) whether it is a fact that onion exports fell 14% to 9.45 lakh tonnes in the current fiscal year and if so, the reasons therefor;

(b) whether the Government is aware of rising prices of onion and tomato in the domestic market;

(c) if so, whether there is a gap between demand and supply of onion and tomato in the country;

(d) whether it is also true that on the one hand the end users/consumers are purchasing onion at exorbitant price and on the other hand farmers are not getting remunerative price for onion due to which the farmers are throwing it on roads and the same is also getting rotten in the storage places; and

(e) if so, the details thereof and the steps taken by the Government to provide remunerative prices to onion and tomato farmers and make them available at a reasonable price to consumers along with the action taken by the Government against the hoarders of onion in various States?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

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(a): Export of onion in current fiscal year 2017-18 (April- September ) is 9.4 lakh tons against 11.6 lakh tons of corresponding period of pervious year. Export of an item is influenced by various external factors like global production, demand, international prices etc.

(b) & (c): The prices of onion and tomato are closely monitored and there has been a raise in prices. However, the production of these commodities in the country is sufficient to meet the domestic demand.

Contd…2/-

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(d) & (e): Price of perishable agriculture item like onion and tomato may increase and decrease due various reasons such as production, crop seasonality, unfavourable weather conditions, transportation cost, grading/sorting, wastage during movement etc. The following steps have been taken by the Government to provide remuernative prices of onion and tomato farmers and stabilize the prices in the market.

I. Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has approved the proposals of procurement of 6,51,000 Metric Ton (MT) onion in Madhya Pradesh and 20,000 MT in Rajasthan in view of the request received from the respective State Government. No such proposal from State Government for tomato has been received.

II. Under Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) scheme , farmers are mobilized into Farmer Producer Organization (FPOs) for aggregating and economies of scale. Efforts are being made to link FPOs to market by way of direct marketing farmer consumer markets / Apni Mandi and e-markets.

III. Under MIDH , assistance is also provided for development of post harvest management and marketing infrastructure such as cold storage, cold room, packing & grading houses, reefer vehicle, primary and wholesale market etc.

IV. National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd.(NAFED) and Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC ) were directed to procure 10,000 MT and 2000 MT from onion producing region in November 2017.

V. The onion procured by Government is being retailed through SAFAL , NCCF and also through auction in mandies to improve availability and moderate prices.

VI. Under National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) scheme launched on 14.04.2016 by the Government, there is a target to integrate 585 mandis across the country by March, 2018. The scheme aims to create a National web based unified agri-marketing portal for inter market and inter-state trading of agri-produces. As on 14.12.2017, 470 markets across 14 States/UTs have been integrated with e-NAM portal.

VII. Government has released a new model “The Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion & Facilitation) Act, 2017” on 24th April, 2017 for its adoption by States/Union Territories. There provisions includes setting up of private markets, direct marketing, farmer-consumer markets, special commodity markets, etc. so as to reduce the number of intermediaries between producer and buyer and increase the share of the farmer in consumer’s rupee.

Government has extended stock limit on onion up to 31st December, 2017 to check hoarding of this commodity.

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