NASHIK, MARCH 3: When the Maharashtra Government started buying onions at higher than the market price from January 4 to provide relief to farmers in view of the onions glut, little did it think that it had bitten off more than it could chew.Two months later, after buying 24 lakh quintals of the crop at Rs 60 crore through the Maharashtra State Cooperative Marketing Federation Ltd., the government has suspended the procurement since February 23 on the pretext of transporting the stocks and prepare the payment lists of farmers. The procurement was suspended for 10 days and was to resume from March 4. However, the Government today announced that the procurement had been further suspended for another week, till March 9, to clear the accumulated stocks and complete the documentation.The Government's gesture in putting off further procurement of onions is apparently a face-saving device to buy time to arrange for the money for paying the farmers. The Government has so far paid only Rs 5.50 crore to the cultivators and a large number of farmers are awaiting their payments.When the Government had started buying onions, it had announced that it would export the commodity and also distribute it through the public distribution system. However, it could not export the crop as the minimum export price fixed for Indian exporters was $205 per tonne which could not find any takers in the Gulf countries where onions from Pakistan and China were available for $160 per tonne.The Government's move to distribute the commodity through ration shops also failed as onions were available cheaper in the open market. (The Government had bought onions for Rs 300-Rs 350 per quintal as against the open market price of Rs 150 to Rs 240 per quintal). The Government's plea to the Central Government to share the losses arising out of the procurement too, turned futile.The Government has now proposed to sell the procured onions to traders at "as is where is" basis for Rs 250 per quintal. The plea is yet to get any response from the traders.According to official estimates, the Government would have to buy about 12 lakh quintals of the kharif (Pol variety) crop and 10 lakh quintals of the late kharif (Rangda variety) of onions.
