File picture of an onion vendor in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, July 23: Frequent onion scarcity in the state is actually a problem of plenty. The state produces much more onions than it consumes.

Because of lack of proper facilities to store perishable commodity, Onion is being exported to other states during the harvest. Consequently, later the state becomes dependant on other states to meet its onion requirements.

Agriculture minister Pradeep Kumar Maharathy virtually admitted this in the Assembly today.

“The state produced 4.18 lakh metric tonnes of onion during 2011-12, 4.19 lakh metric tonnes during 2012-13 and 4.32 lakh metric tonnes during 2013-14. The state’s consumption requirement is around 2.26 lakh metric tonnes of onion every year,” he said.

Despite such a high level of production, the state experienced frequent onion scarcity with its retail price even soaring up to Rs 60 per kg. Onions are now selling at Rs 30 per kg. The state heavily relies on onion supply from Nasik in Maharashtra to meet its requirement during the lean season. The price is feared to go up in the coming days as there are reports of crop loss in Nasik this year.

Onion is cultivated extensively in Kalahandi, Nuapada and Balangir districts as the climate and soil condition in those areas are favourable for the crop.

Maharathy told the Assembly today that after the harvest in rabi season, onion produced in the state is exported to Bangladesh and neighbouring states such as Andhra Pradesh, Bengal and Chhattisgarh. “The farmers are forced to sell their produce to traders outside the state due to lack of adequate preservation facility,” the minister admitted.

Most of the 18 cold storages set up in the co-operative sector are lying defunct, said co-operation minister Damodar Rout. Only three cold storages run by the Odisha Co-Operative Marketing Federation are working, Rout said, while replying to a related question.

The cold storages are highly energy consuming, which is a reason why these are lying defunct. Private entrepreneurs are not coming forward to run these cold storages on public-private partnership mode because of this reason, said Rout.

Cutting across party lines, legislators expressed their concern over the situation and urged the government to initiate measures to enhance storage facilities in the state. BJP leader Basanta Kumar Panda demanded constitution of an inter-departmental committee to address the problem. There were suggestions to the effect that the Government should store onion and release when required.

Maharathy pointed out that while his department took care of the production, the co-operative department was in charge of cold storages and the civil supplies department was supposed to procure the produces and sell.