MP govt forced to sell onions to poor at ₹1/kg

BHOPAL: It is raining onions in flood-hit Madhya Pradesh.

The state government, which procured excess onions from farmers at ₹6 per kg, has now decided to sell them to the poor for ₹1 per kg.

Farmers in Madhya Pradesh took to onion farming on a large scale last year because of its high price but the bumper crop this year meant no buyers in the open market, forcing the state government to procure the excess crop.

However, the shortage of warehouses meant onions rotting during rains. The government estimated that 3.8 lakh quintals of onions have rotted in absence of adequate storage facilities.

Officials of Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Marketing Federation (MARKFED), the nodal body for procurement of onions, said the state government had sold just one lakh quintal of the 10.4 lakh quintals of onions till now. The government first floated a tender for selling the onions, but the response was just 60 paisa per kg. The tender was issued again, but the response didn’t improve much as it got a price between 60 paisa to ₹1.5.

The government then decided to auction onions at the district level. At a rate of ₹4 per kg, authorities were able to sell nearly 22,000 quintals. The auction rates were lowered again to ₹2 per kg, which led to the sale of over 60,000 quintals of onions.

Now, the state government has decided to distribute the remaining onions free of cost among poor families, with ₹1 to be charged for transportation. This would mean a loss of about ₹100 crore.

BM Sharma, managing director of MARKFED, said, “Over five lakh quintals of onion are still lying in warehouses. Three days ago, the state government decided to sell onions to people in the BPL category through fair-price shops at the rate of ₹1 per kg.”