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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

17/12/22 07:35 AM IST

Centre draws flak from Parliamentary panel over state of onion silos

In News
  • Storage facilities for onions run by the Centre are poor and need an immediate overhaul, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution has said in a recent report.
Onion in India
  • India is the second-largest onion-growing country in the world and the Indian onions are famous for their pungency (sharp smell, and taste) and are available round the year.
  • There are 3 sowing seasons for the onion crop in India – Kharif (10%), late Kharif (20%) and Rabi (70%).
  • The Rabi onion crop is the mainstay of India and the price of the onion is normally lower during these months due to greater supply.
  • In 2020-21, the major onion-producing states are Maharashtra (39%), Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh (17%), Gujarat, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Telangana.
  • The major export destinations are Bangladesh, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, UAE, Nepal and Indonesia.
  • As India faces frequent onion demand-supply mismatches, resulting in price fluctuations, successfully storing rabi onions and scientific management of onion output in all three seasons is crucial.
  • Onions were traditionally stored in open ventilated chawls and the development of modern scientific technology was still in the experimental stage.
  • In order to develop technologies for primary processing, storage and valorisation of onion, the department has initiated a hackathon under the guidance of Chief Innovation Officer, Ministry of Education.
Findings of the committee
  • The Standing Committee also noted that 51,582.74 million tonnes (MT) of onion had been damaged due to spoilage in the last three years.
  • A quantity of 51,582.74 MT of onion has damaged due to spoilage during the years 2019-20 to 2022-21.
  • Prices skyrocketed beyond 150 per kilogram in the winter of 2019 before stabilising.
  • The percentage of loss on account of prolonged storage of onion in the buffer in 2021-22, had been reduced to 25.96 per cent from about 28 per cent in 2020-21.
Source- DTE

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