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Centre hoards onions to guard against crisis

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

Determined not to allow the onion to play truant again this year with the general election round the corner, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government is stocking thousands of tonnes of the popular vegetable all over North India to meet any crisis.

In yards and temporary godowns hired in prominent cities and even shantytowns, NAFED [the National Agriculture Marketing Federation] is storing the monsoon crop of the Nasik variety, which remains intact for almost six months.

Authoritative sources said that at least 15,000 tonnes of the Nasik onions are in NAFED's custody to meet any eventuality.

It was an acute shortage of onion that resulted in skyrocketing prices that became the nemesis of the BJP in the elections to four state assemblies, including Delhi, last year.

Onions were being sold at almost Rs 100 a kilo in the capital, and the BJP governments in Delhi and Rajasthan were routed.

Immediately after the onion fiasco, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government banned the exports of onion and put the commodity in the Open General Licence list for imports. Not satisfied with all that, the government also told NAFED to stock enough onions to meet any crisis.

The decision to ask NAFED to store onions in ample quantities was taken soon after Vajpayee lost the vote of confidence and another general election became inevitable, sources said.

In Delhi alone, 5,000 tonnes of the summer crop have been stored at a sub-yard in Keshavpur Subzi Mandi in Azadpur, which is Asia's biggest vegetable market. Delhi's daily consumption of onion is about 700-800 tonnes.

The sources pointed out that with 5,000 tonnes in the yard, even an artificial shortage cannot be created as there are "enough onions with us to control the market price for at least a week". And a week is enough time to acquire onions even from the international markets.

NAFED has stocked onions also in Panipat, Sonepat, Ambala and some other towns in Haryana. In Uttar Pradesh, the vegetable has been stocked in NOIDA, Ghaziabad and several other places.

The Nasik variety has a shelf life of about six months. The present stock was harvested before June 15. In the beginning of September the monsoon crop will be harvested, the sources said. The buffer stock will be replaced at that time.

While the government has taken preventive measures to ward off any onion crisis, tomato and potato prices are "very normal, and there is no reason for panic", the sources said.

In July, tomato prices had shot up to about Rs 40 a kilo, but now the vegetable is selling at Rs 6 to 14 in the wholesale markets.

But the sources said apple prices are set to shoot through the roof. Though apple is not known to have any electoral importance, apple prices in the coming months will be double those of last year.

The arrival of apples in the Azadpur Subzi Mandi, which lies north of the vegetable wholesale market, has come down by 54 per cent. The reason: in Himachal Pradesh's Kulu-Manali belt, only 20 per cent of the apple crop has survived heavy rains and landslides.

Unlike onions and similar vegetables, a substantial portion (at least 30 per cent) of the apples coming to Delhi are consumed in the capital itself. If the price goes on increasing, the supply of apples to other places will come down.

Asked if there is even the remotest chance of an onion crisis, the sources said that could happen if there is unusually heavy rain in the whole of north India, including Kashmir, resulting in extensive damage to leafy vegetables, including onion, and roadblocks for several days. "But then that is almost impossible," they added.

The 1998 Assembly Elections

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