The state government of Indore has decided to build 300 onion storage units this fiscal year, after piles of onions were found to be damaged due to the lack of storage facilities. The government will provide a subsidy of Rs175,000 to every beneficiary to build an onion storage unit. These units will have a holding capacity of about 50 tonnes.
DR Jatav, deputy director, horticulture department, Indore said, "The cost of building these units — 20 metres in length and 5 metres in width — will be around Rs375,000 lakh. We have set a target of building around 300 storage units in the district for proper storage of onions."
Earlier in June, the government had to purchase onions at Rs6 per kg from farmers, in-order to prevent the steep fall in prices due to oversupply. But as they were unable to manage the huge stock, onions worth millions of rupees were damaged.
The horticulture department has received about 200 applications for building onion storage units in Indore, Sanwer, Depalpur and Ambedkar nagar among other places, but work has commenced for just 15 units.
Jatav said, "Work on building onion storage units was delayed due to rains while several farmers that are interested in setting up facilities cited financial constraints. At least a month is required to set up an onion storage unit."
In order to clear out the current stock, the government is distributing onions almost for free through fair price shops.
Around 67,000 quintals of onions were allocated to Indore district to be distributed through fair price shops. But over 60 per cent of onions were damaged due to monsoon rains and a lack of adequate storage space.
According to industry experts, around 20 per cent of food is wasted in the supply chain during transportation from farms to consumers.
(1 Indian Rupee=0.015USD)
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
