Noted economist and NITI Ayog member Bibek Debroy on Tuesday blamed National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) for the crisis of onions in the country.
He did not see hoarding of onions as a major reason for the soaring of prices bringing tears to the people and giving an opportunity to the political parties to whip the government. “I believe that import and export of agricultural produces should not be left to NAFED. It should be out of the government control,” he told The Pioneer. Cooperative body NAFED undertakes the purchase, sale and supply of agricultural products.
Debroy, who was here for a meeting with Chief Minister Raghubar Das, said that the UPA I and II (When Sharad Pawar was the Agriculture Minister) put such a system in place for the export and import of agricultural produces, which left the scope for a big scam.
‘It is shocking that NAFED swings into action to import onions when the price is skyrocketing. It has done so in the past too,” he maintained.
Significantly, the Aam Aadmi Party has also demanded the Centre to probe into the functioning of NAFED for irregularities allegedly committed by it in the procurement of onions and misuse of the price stabilisation fund provided to it, leading to a nationwide onion prices crisis.
Debroy said that processing of agriculture produces like onions and linking them to the market could be a panacea to stabilize the prices throughout the year.
Ironically, NAFED has failed to attract any supplier from countries like Pakistan, China and Egypt when it floated tender to import 10,000 tonnes of onions some time back. So, it has re-invited the bid and asked the supplier to turn up by August 27.
Onion prices are rising due to the fall in production and sluggish supply of stored onions, meant for meeting the demand during the lean period of July-September.
Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh are the top three onion producing states in the country.
Retail prices of onions in the State capital have gone up to `70-80. A similar trend prevails in other parts of the country.