The committee on Tuesday decided to eliminate traders and middlemen in the procurement and supply chain and make the commodity available to consumers directly. It will purchase onions from farmers on its own.
There is some relief in sight on the onion front. If the emergency strategy of the Lasalgaon Agriculture Market Produce Committee (APMC) rolls on without a hitch in Nashik, you may soon get onion at Rs40 from your neighbourhood vegetable vendor.
The committee on Tuesday decided to eliminate traders and middlemen in the procurement and supply chain and make the commodity available to consumers directly. It will purchase onions from farmers on its own.
“Looking at the present instability in onion prices, the APMC has decided to take the initiative in the interest of farmers and the consumers. We will buy onion from the farmers and reach it directly to the consumers,’’ chairman of Lasalgaon APMC, Jaydatta Holkar told DNA.
Under a pilot project, which will be inaugurated on Wednesday at Lasalgaon, onions would be purchased and sent to Nashik. The mobile centres would then take the vegetable to the doorstep of the consumers. ``We will sell on no profit - no loss basis,’’ he added.
The final price of onion will include the transportation cost. The APMC expects it to be around Rs30 per kg. ``If the pilot project is successful then it will be replicated in cities like Mumbai,’’ Holkar informed.
Onion farmers in the region have reacted cautiously to this announcement. “We don’t mind who buys the crop so long we get a fair price. We will sell our produce to the one who gives us good prices. We don’t want the consumer to suffer,” reacted Mahendra Jadhav, an onion farmer from Niphad.
While the traders did seem taken aback with the announcement, they welcomed it. “It is a free market economy. Anyone can buy at the onion auction. If APMC wants to buy, they are welcome, we will help them in all possible way,” stated Sohanlal Bhandari, chairman of Nashik district onion traders’ association.
The APMC is determined to make its plan successful. “APMCs can purchase and are allowed to do so. We are taking this step in the interest of the farmers and the consumers and intend to continue till the price situation eases,” Holkar stated.
Meanwhile, after the ban on trade of onions by traders in the APMCs all over the district was lifted on Tuesday, auction began smoothly.
Onions fetched an average Rs3,000 per quintal with a high of Rs3,569 and a low of Rs500 per quintal. The arrival was around 8,000 quintal.
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