Telangana News

With the intention of saving the onion farmers from getting poor prices for their crop, Telangana government has started buying the commodity for Rs 8,000 per tonne, a senior official of the state Agricultural Marketing Department said.

G Lakshmi Bai, Additional Director of Marketing, opines that, as both Maharashtra and Karnataka are producing the onions in high quantities, it is resulting in Telangana markets being flooded with the commodity, bringing its price down to almost Rs 2,000 per tonne (Rs 2 per kg).

“The prices of onion are hovering at lower levels during the past ten days. There is excess production in Maharashtra and Karnataka. There is a lot of stored onion available in Maharashtra. It was supposed to be disposed of before October. Since it is not done, prices have been crashed. The state government started buying onion at Rs 8,000 per tonne (Rs 8 per kg) from Mahabubnagar markets. So far we have purchased about 6,800 tonnes. We will continue buying until the season is over,” Lakshmi Bai said.

According to a senior official of the Telangana Horticulture Department, onion is cultivated in about 20,000 hectares in Telangana, with an expected yield of 20 tonnes per hectare. One of the wholesale dealers at Malakpet Gunj said the state government is buying the cheapest variety (Kunool variety) whose shelf life is very short. He said that, the current rate of medium to good variety is between Rs 7,000 to Rs 12,000 (per tonne).