The onion output of Nashik district is likely to fall by 50% due to unseasonal rain and hailstorm that lashed the region between February 24 and March 16.

State agriculture department officials said that though the rabi crop (harvested in April-May) suffered heavy damages in Nashik, the prices of onion across the country will remain stable. Any possibility of scarcity in the country over August and September should be overcome by the kharif crop in October.

Nature's fury damaged standing crop on 41,984 hectares out of 46,987 hectares of land under onion production in Nashik district. About 50% of the crop is lost. This may decline the yield to around 6 tonnes a hectare against the average yield of 16 tonnes in 2013. Fog over the land adversely impacted the nourishment of the crop on the remaining 5,000 hectares, which is likely to reduce the yield to 10-12 tonnes a hectare this season.

The production of rabi onion, which was 6.04 lakh tonnes during 2012-13, is likely to be slashed by about 50% to 2.94 lakh tonnes in the current season.

"Only half of the total produce will be of good quality. This will badly affect the export, since Maharashtra accounts for 70% of the total onion sent out. About 50% of this is produced in Nashik district alone," a state agriculture department official told TOI.

"The shelf-life of rabi or summer onions, which is harvested in April and May, is around seven months. Its supply continues until the arrival of the new kharif crop which happens in the last week of October. This year, the harvest of rabi crop began in the first week of March, thanks to the rain and hail. The shelf-life of the crop may be reduced to four months. This will lead to scarcity of onions from August until the arrival of new kharif crop in October. But onion acreage in other states has increased, which should compensate for this loss," the official said.

R P Gupta, director of the National Horticulture Research and Development Foundation, said, "Much of the rabi crop i.e. 14 lakh tonnes is stored in Maharashtra. About 8 to 9 lakh tonnes of this is in Nashik district.

There will be less storage this year due to hailstorm. Hence, there is a possibility of scarcity of onion in August and September. If the weather conditions are favourable for the kharif crop, availability will remain normal," said Gupta.

Changdeo Holkar, director of the National Agriculture Co-operative Marketing Federation of India, also said that there will be no immediate impact on onion supply. "Rain and hailstorm damaged much of the crop, but still half of the produce could be salvaged. The quality of the remaining crop is poor though. There is a possibility that the supply will be low during August and September and onion prices may increase during that period," Holkar said.

Nanasaheb Patil, chairman of Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), said that it will take about two or three weeks to get a clear picture of the damage. "Onion export will definitely be hampered since the district accounts for nearly 50% of the total export," said Patil.

Meanwhile, the wholesale onion markets across Nashik district will remain closed for a week from March 28 to April 2 as the onion traders will have to complete their accounts for the fiscal 2013-14. The district APMCs will start auctions from April 3, 2014.

Source - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/