Now Reading: Onion procurement overhaul slows government stockpiling
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Onion procurement overhaul slows government stockpiling
India’s overhaul of its onion procurement system has severely slowed government purchases, with only 13,000 tonnes procured by July 7 against a target of 2 lakh tonnes, Hindustan Times reports. The consumer…
The Story in Brief
India’s overhaul of its onion procurement system has severely slowed government purchases, with only 13,000 tonnes procured by July 7 against a target of 2 lakh tonnes, Hindustan Times reports. The consumer affairs ministry was forced to relax quality norms and raise procurement prices six times, to Rs 23.35 per kg. After easing standards, procurement rose to 115,000 tonnes as of Thursday.
The government shifted storage responsibility from Nafed and NCCF to the Central Warehousing Corporation this year to curb irregularities, including middlemen inflating prices and bogus transactions. Consumer affairs secretary Nidhi Khare said the change eliminated a conflict of interest. However, CWC’s strict enforcement of Grade A quality norms led to high rejection rates, compounded by unseasonal rains damaging Maharashtra’s crop. Onion inflation surged to 22.5% in July from 4.7% in June.
The Indian Opinion
The narrative that bureaucratic tweaks alone sabotaged procurement ignores the real culprit: erratic weather that degraded onion quality. Unseasonal rains in Maharashtra, not just warehouse rules, forced higher rejection rates. The government’s late relaxation of norms and repeated price hikes show it was caught off guard. Watch for procurement figures in the next month, if they cross the 200,000-tonne target, the system fix may prove temporary. If not, who pays for the price shock at the market? The consumer or the farmer?
Source: hindustantimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
