NASHIK :
The central government has decided to buy 50,000 tonnes of onion through NAFED. Accordingly, 50,000 tonnes of onion will be purchased in the state. The onion will be purchased through open auction at market committees and shivar purchase method through farmer producer companies, informed director of NAFED Nanasaheb Patil to Deshdoot.
This decision was taken in a meeting of board of directors held on April 29. However, it was delayed due to sanctioned tenders and availability of employees.
Following a decision over this, onion purchase will now be started. NAFED will take part in open auction at Lasalgaon market committee. Preparations are also going on at Pimpalgaon Baswant. Priority will be given to purchase that onion having high quality.
At present storages with NAFED has the capacity to store onion up to 14,000 tonnes. Comparing to this farmer producer companies have more storage capacity, onion was stored with them last year. Considering this, more preference will be given to them for onion purchase. At present work to purchase onion using shivar purchase, method has been started through farmer producer companies at Naigaon (Sinnar tehsil), Taharabad (Satana tehsil) and Narayangaon (Junnar tehsil, Pune). Accordingly these companies will buy onion in Nashik, Ahmednagar, Pune, Aurangabad and Osmanabad districts.
NAFED has its godowns in Lasalgaon which have the capacity to store 4,000 tonnes of onion, while godowns in Pimpalgaon Baswant has the capacity to store 3,000 tonnes of onion. Considering this, godowns and other storages to store onion will be taken on a lease basis. This time onion will also be purchased from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
Mahaonion is a joint project by NAFED and Maha-FPC. A capacity to store 25,000 tonnes of onion is being developed through this. Work regarding this is in progress at 25 places. There is an objective to buy 25,000 tonnes of onion through shivar purchase.
– Yogesh Thorat, chairman, Maha-FPC
