LAHORE, Jan 9: An onion crisis is in the making as prices soar past Rs24 per kilogramme on the back of the ripple effect created by crop failure triggered by heavy rains in Sindh in 2003 starts affecting the commodity's supply
all over the country, farmers and consumers complain.
Only a few weeks ago, onion was priced between Rs5 and Rs8 per kilogramme in most parts of the country, consumers said. On Friday, the commodity's price in the NWFP and Balochistan had gone over Rs20 per kg, and was still rising, they said. Sindh's onion production is sufficient for the country's needs during the period between December and April, farmers said.
They blamed progressive reduction in the sowing area of onion and the subsequent drop in its production for the current crisis. Officials, however, dismissed the severity of the shortage terming it a temporary phenomenon, saying it would end by mid- February when second crop creeps into the market.
Farmers said onion crop was sown over 271,326 acres in 2000. Sindh contributed 45 per cent of the total output, Punjab 22 per cent, the NWFP nine per cent and Balochistan 24 per cent. But this year, the harvested area shrunk by 14,826 acres down to 256,500 acres.
Subsequently, production dropped by 263,000 tonnes down from 164,8000 tonnes to 138,5000 tonnes. The shortage of 263,000 tonnes constitute about two months' consumption in the country.
The commodity's price is soaring on the back of the ever- increasing supply-demand gap and it is likely to go way beyond the reach of the common man. Punjab Agriculture Secretary Arif Nadeem, who headed a meeting on the onion crisis on Friday, said Sindh's onion crop failed last year after abnormal rains affected its first sowing, adding the crop's second sowing would take another month-and-a- half to mature.
He said the crop failure was not confined to Sindh alone as the same thing happened in India too. He said the delay in the second sowing of onion in Sindh had left a gap of around 40 days' supply, adding it had created the current crunch. He expressed the hope that the supply situation would stabilize by mid-February.
