With falling domestic onion prices and rising financial stress among farmers, the Maharashtra government has requested Union food and public distribution minister Piyush Goyal to purchase around 2 lakh tonnes of onions across the state through its agency National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED).
"Onion farmers are facing financial difficulties due to a fall in onion prices. Therefore, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has requested the Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Supplies Piyush Goyal to buy 2 lakh metric tonnes of onion through Price Stabilization Fund through Nafed," a statement by Maharashtra chief minister's office said.
However, the statement from the CMO did not mention anything about the current selling price of onions in the state.Onion is the main cash crop in Maharashtra and it accounts for 35 to 40 per cent of the country's total production of the staple vegetable -- PTI