Govt doesn’t know its onions: Joshi

PUNE, Nov 24: Shetkari Sanghatana leader Sharad Joshi has accused the government of pandering to bureaucrats in its moves to tackle the onio...

PUNE, Nov 24: Shetkari Sanghatana leader Sharad Joshi has accused the government of pandering to bureaucrats in its moves to tackle the onion crisis and warned that this would snowball into a worse problem next year, even another spate of farmers’ suicides.

“If the government had not given into pressure and planned for getting seeds, we could have seen the end of this problem next year. Instead, the secretariat babus ordered imports which allows them more income,” he told media persons here.

Issuing a stern warning of the possibility of another spate of suicides by farmers, Joshi flayed the government for its knee-jerk reaction in going for onion imports instead of opting for onion seeds that, he observed, could have eased the problem on a long term basis.

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Importing onions as a short term measure to control prices in the domestic market is not the answer, Joshi observed, asserting that it was time to face the reality that prices abroad could not be compared to those at home. “You cannot get onion for a budget less than a dollar for a kilogram, What is exorbitant in India is normal in the international market,” he argued.

Most of the meteorologists have pooh-poohed the El Nino factor. But the fact remains that the country has seen unseasonable rainfall last year to the extent of 20 days in the month of November and another 24 days in December damaging the Kharif crop and more importantly the seed production in Maharashtra, he pointed out. As a result the carry-over stock of seeds has also reduced this year, he said.

Moreover, some of the farmers have already gone in for a second sowing during this season again causing an reduction in the stock, he said. It is time everybody accepts the burden of natural calamities instead burdening the farmer, he opined. Joshi refused to subscribe to the theory that some traders had rigged the prices that have gone up to Rs 60 per kilo. The extent of the price rise is justified, he said, explaining that there was only so much that the mediators could play with perishable commodities such as onions.

A storage period of seven days cannot allow a trader to corner the market, he argued. He maintained that they were not opposed to any commercial imports but objected to governmental dumping. He pointed to the wheat import; one from Argentina, which caused damage to the tune of Rs 800 crore, and another from Australia that registered losses of Rs 200 crore due to the presence of noxious weeds in the consignments.

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Asked to comment on the steps that the government should take, Joshi replied that they should only go in for a damage control exercise this year.

The government should stop all restrictions on onion exports for the next five years and not permit commercial imports.