With over 140 million quintals of onion already in its godowns, the procurement of further onions is proving to be a tearful exercise for the Madhya Pradesh government. All the 67 centres have already overflowed with onions bought from farmers across the state.
Serpentine queues of tractors were seen in front of mandis in the state, but the markets can process maximum 250 to 300 trolleys of onions in a day.
The state government, after violent protests by farmers, had declared that it would buy onions at Rs 8 per kg from them. So far, over 14 lakh quintals have been bought into mandis. Last year, under similar circumstances of bumper crop, government had bought 10.50 lakh quintals, but had not faced any problem in storing them.
This year, however, government is facing difficult situation due to absence of enough storage facilities. Inflow of onions from neighbouring states has made the situation further worse. Traders from neighbouring states are allegedly thrusting their stocks in guise of farmers' produce.
The sudden surge of onions at the mandis started after Chief Mminister Shivraj Singh Chouhan asked the district collectors to increase the purchase centres according to requirement and based on the arrival of onions. Chouhan had said that there was no limit to the purchase of onions or any other produce.
In order to get rid of excess of onions, the government, in a high level meting two days back, had decided to sell the onions to public through public distribution system (PDS) at a price of Rs 2 per kilograms.
So far, government mandis have registered over 27,000 farmers who have sold their onions at Rs 8 per kilogram. At several mandis, long queues of farmers were seen waiting for their turn to sell their produce. Cooperative Minister Vishwas Sarang said that the record of last year purchase has been broken due to excess and bumper crop.
With the rate of onion fixed at Rs 8 per kg, the farmers and traders of neighbouring states of Maharshatra and Gujarat have allegedly started smuggling their onion to Madhya Pradesh to be sold at government centres to fetch a good price.
In Khandwa, near Pandhana agriculture market, district administration caught a truck laden with 400 bags of onion reportedly waiting to get it sold at a government mandi. Mandi inspector Kishore Mahesahwari, who apprehended the vehicle, said, “The truck is believed to have come from outside Madhya Pradesh. The driver of the truck did not have requisite papers to prove that it was from a farmer in the state. We levied a fine of Rs 20,000 on the truck.’’
Meanwhile, traders have started conniving with local mandis to sell the onion bought from neighboring states at a lower price to sell it in Madhya Pradesh. An agriculture official of Indore division said “We are informed of such smuggling of onion and we are keeping a strict vigil to avoid such buying.’’
Food and Civil Supplies Commissioner Pawan Sharma said, “We are making arrangements to lift onion from mandis to be supplied through our fair price shops in various districts.” In districts like Gwalior, Datia, Jabalpur, Panna, Hoshangabad, Anuppur, Guna, Asjoknagar and Chhindwada, onions at subsidised rate of Rs 2 have already started being sold through PDS shops.
