Recurring onion crisis

Incentivise storage to ensure steady availability

Onion prices, which have quite frequently seen a steep increase in the post-monsoon season in recent years, normally subside by November. But this year, the high prices linger on and there is no sign of normalisation anytime soon. Though this can partly be attributed to the monsoon-driven delay in the sowing and harvesting of the kharif onion crop, the alarm and scarcity psychosis created by the government through its ill-advised and mistimed market interventions are also to blame. Measures like barring onion exports, ordering emergency imports with relaxed phytosanitary and fumigation norms and imposition of stockholding limits were clear signs