Onion crisis has visited us for the second time during past one decade or more. Onions are an essential variety of vegetable, which people of every region and class in the country consume as part of eatables. Indians feel a dish tasteless if it does not carry smattering of onion. The poorest of the poor can enjoy a meal of two chapatis and few slices of onion while for the rich and affluent, onion is taste promoter of any vegetable cooked in the house. As such, we can understand how much onion is in demand in the country. Some of the regions in the country are well-known for their onion production which has become the mainstay of their economy. Take the case of Nasik in Maharashtra; it is the major supplier of onion to the country especially to northern India. Failure of this crop in this centre of production would naturally lead to crisis in supply of the commodity.
Why does the crisis happen? It happened once during the times when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister and the Opposition in the Parliament at that time tried to make it an issue to pillory the then Government. Onion had to be imported from abroad including Pakistan for the reason of quick transportation. Price of onion came down once the crisis of supply and demand was over. There has been a trend of holding retail sellers of onion in Jammu responsible for creating artificial crisis in supply and thus make huge profits in the business. However, the main retailers of onion business in the stock market of Narwal in Jammu have pointed out that actually the crisis happens owing to reduced supply of onion from the suppliers in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
The ongoing onion crisis is also the outcome of the same formula of supply and demand. Owing to failure of onion crop in Nasik region of Maharashtra by untimely rains, supply of onion to Northern India fell drastically. At the same time, cultivation of onion crops in Karnataka was also delayed owing to climatic conditions. Put together, this ended up in demand and supply theory and hence the sudden hike in the price of onions. It is expected that shortly onion retailers will be able to procure the commodity from Rajasthan markets which could lead to bringing down the cost price of onion considerably. But in overall estimation, escalation of the price of onion from 40 or 45 rupees a kilogram to 70 or 80 rupees is too much for an ordinary housewife to afford. Moreover, there is no uniformity in the selling price of onion in the market. There could be a variance of ten to fifteen rupees a kilo among the retail sellers. This is what the Government should take note of and prevent. Though we do not believe that price hike in onions is because of monopolization by the retail sellers, yet there is the need of controlling the selling price until a time when supply and demand scenario returns to normalcy.
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