Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday sought the intervention of the union minister of consumer affairs and food and public distribution union Piyush Goyal requesting him to continue procurement of onion by NAFED under Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) in a bid to help the farmers facing the financial difficulties due to fall in prices. ‘’Your ministry has already been requested to restore the procurement of onion under PSF by NAFED with an additional target of 2 lakh MT. NAFED has already procured 2.38 lakh MT of onion at the daily market rate under PSF from April to July in the current year. The increased quota of 2 lakh MT would be a great step to ensure remunerative prices for onion farmers,’’ said the CM in a letter to Goyal.
He said onion is an important cash crop for farmers in Maharashtra and the state contributes around 35-40% of total production in the country. In the year 2021-22, due to favourable monsoon, there has been bumper production of onion which has led to a constant decline in market prices-many times below the cost of production which has resulted in distress and unrest among the onion farmers. In 2021-22, production of onion was 136 lakh MT which was 20 lakh MT higher compared to last year’s production of 110.98 Lakh MT and has caused a glut like situation,’’ he added.
Further, Shinde said the onion export has been hampered with the neighbouring countries due to a variety of reasons such as the onion import by Sri Lanka has been hampered due to the ongoing financial crisis there. ‘’Due to ever changing conditions of the international markets, farmers do not get the opportunity of better prices through exports. The central government has declined the state government’s request of increasing benefits from 2% to 10% under Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP). I shall be grateful if your ministry reconsiders the decision and extends the RoDTEP benefits from 2% to 10%,’’ he appealed to the minister.
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