Onion acreage may shrink 5% on delayed rain

Farmers stay away from seed purchase, await actual rainfall before investing in onion seeds

The area under onion is likely to decline by at least five per cent this kharif season due to a delayed monsoon.

Farmers in Maharashtra and neighbouring states face a shortage of soil moisture because of deficient rain in the previous two monsoon seasons. They are avoiding planting onion despite prediction of surplus rainfall this year by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Sowing of the kharif onion crop, which contributes nearly 20 per cent of India’s annual output, normally begins with the onset of the monsoon on June 10 and continues until the end of the month. Sowing this year is delayed by over two weeks.

“Fearing crop damage, farmers are waiting for actual rainfall. If rain does not arrive this week the area under onion will decline by around 5 per cent,” said Jai Gopal, director for onion and garlic research at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

  There has been sporadic rainfall in and around Nashik in Maharashtra but it is yet to advance towards other regions of the state. The rainfall so far has not been intense enough to begin sowing onion seeds.

Gopal said farmers had bought 40 per cent less onion seeds this season. “Farmers do not want to block funds in seed. If the rains arrive soon, they may resume purchases. But the loss in acreage this season is unlikely to be recovered,” he added.

In the benchmark Lasalgaon mandi,the price of onion jumped to Rs 9 a kg on Tuesday from Rs 8.25 two weeks ago. Onion arrivals, too, declined to 200 tonnes on June 21 from 1,200 tonnes on June 7.

“Farmers are selling stored onion gradually. They will later sell stocks in warehouses and cold storages. So prices may not see a sharp upsurge this year,” said RP Gupta, former director of the National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation.

Onion prices had surged to Rs 44 a kg in wholesale markets last year on fears of lower output before the government intervened. The National Horticulture Board reckons India’s onion output in 2015-16 at 20.21 million tonnes against 18.93 million tonnes in the previous year. The onion acreage declined to 1.17 million hectares in 2015-16 from 1.17 million hectares in the previous year.