With the mandis in Nasik district of Maharashtra remaining closed for a week, the government is aiming to scale up sales of onion from its buffer stock by National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) and farmers’ cooperative Nafed via national digital platform electronic-national agriculture market (e-NAM).
Financialexpress.com reports that, in the last couple of weeks, NCCF has sold 9.637 tons of onions from its stock from Lasalgaon, Nasik to buyers in several states via the e-NAM platform. On Tuesday, the federation sold a record 1,300 tons of onions on the platform. NCCF and Nafed currently have around 0.3 million tons of onion buffer stock which is being sold in the market to cool down the prices.
Traders in Nashik are considering going solo
One week ago, 149 traders from Lasalgaon surrendered their licenses, mandated for carrying on business through the APMCs. Now, traders in Nashik are considering going solo by breaking away from the government-controlled Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC). The strike by farmers and traders entered the eighth day on Wednesday.
An official from the department of agriculture, who did not wish to be named, said a handful of the 600 registered procurers operating through over 15 different wholesale markets across Nashik have already started what they term “private markets”. They buy onion directly from farmers and sell in the retail markets. Insiders have suggested that if the numbers increase, it can end the government control over them as the farmers have created multiple options to sell their produce.
Source: hindustantimes.com