From Plate to Plough: Wipe away the onion tears | The Indian Express

From Plate to Plough: Wipe away the onion tears | The Indian Express

Written by Ashok Gulati, Harsh Wardhan |Updated: September 30, 2019 11:43:59 am

The writer is chair professor for agriculture at ICRIER. Views are personal

Harsh Wardhan is consultant at ICRIER.

From Plate to Plough: Wipe away the onion tears

The government's concern over spike in onion prices is justified. But the policy instruments it is using won't solve the problem.

Onion price rise in September is not new. Prices rise in September almost every year due to seasonality, but every alternate year there is an accelerated spike due to ‘some other factors’.

Onions are on the boil, once again. With onion retail prices in Delhi crossing Rs 40/kg in mid-September, and even higher in Mumbai, the government swung into action. It imposed a minimum export price (MEP) of $850/tonne, followed by a central team of bureaucrats visiting Lasalgaon, India’s largest wholesale market of onions, to assess the situation. It won’t be a surprise if they come up blaming onion traders for speculation and recommend stocking limits. While the heightened concern of the government is justified, we disagree with the policy instruments being used. Here is our take on it.