States told to increase cultivation of rabi onions as Centre battles shortages
banned onion exports to augment domestic supply and keep prices in check. Though the price of onion has eased in recent days, the government is on watch to not let it increase due to the tightness in supply, one of the officials said. Both the officials declined to be identified.
On Sunday, the all-India average retail price of onion was Rs55.4 a kg, down 6.2% from a month earlier, but 98% higher year-on-year, show data from the consumer affairs ministry. The rabi season accounts for nearly nearly 80% of India’s total onion output. The horticulture department and the agriculture ministry didn’t immediately reply to queries from Mint.
“Because of late rainfall in the kharif season and extended dry spells in late kharif, the area (of onion cultivation) came down. Some damage was also reported due to recent hailstorms," said the official mentioned above. “A team of officers from the agriculture and consumer affairs departments visited Karnataka two to three weeks ago and now they are in Maharashtra." These two states are among the country’s top producers of onion.
Patchy monsoon and dry spells lowered onion cultivation area by nearly 96% year-on-year to 8.6 million hectares (mh) in Maharashtra, the top grower, in the 2023-24 kharif season. Production fell 94% year-on-year to 750,000 tonnes. In Karnataka, the acreage fell by about 75% to around 11 mh and production by 43.3% than the previous Kharif season to 770,000 tonnes, according to agriculture ministry sources.
“There is a real concern about kharif and late kharif production. So far, the price has not increased further but the availability concern is still there," said the official quoted above. “Nothing is final on crop estimates… estimates are still coming… but so far
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