NEW! The Gist (AUG-24) | E-BOOKS
THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 26 October 2020 Onion fears(Indian Express)
Onion fears(Indian Express)
Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Kharif crops
Mains level: Major crops cropping patterns in various parts of the country, different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints
Context:
- Onions retailing at an all-India average of Rs 70 per kg — they ruled at Rs 50 levels last year too around this time and had crossed Rs 100 by mid-December — has one key takeaway for policymakers.
- That has to do with the unreliability of kharif crop production even in supposedly normal monsoon years.
- The southwest monsoon season (June-September) recorded significant surplus rainfall both in 2020 and 2019. Yet, they didn’t yield the desired harvests.
- Last year, the rains weren’t good till the last week of July, but it poured thereafter and right through October.
- It led to the standing crop — including onions, pulses and soyabean — suffering heavy damage.
- Something similar has happened this time. Excess August rains took a tollof soyabean and urad (black gram) in Madhya Pradesh.
- In September, it was arhar (pigeon pea) and onion in Karnataka.
- The current month has been a washout for Maharashtra’s harvest-ready kharif onions and even the late-kharif bulbs that couldn’t be transplanted due to the nurseries getting flooded.
Agriculture output:
- The extended monsoon rains, although not beneficial for kharif, should nevertheless help recharge groundwater aquifers and thereby, deliver a bounty during the rabi season.
- Farmers did harvest bumper winter-spring crops of wheat, chana (chickpea), mustard and even onion, tomato, gourds, beans and melons this April-June; one can hope for a repeat in the upcoming season as well.
- Rabi production is largely dependent on access to irrigation, which has improved over the years through provision of tubewell connections, building of farm ponds/water harvesting structures and adoption of drip/sprinkler technology.
- Absence of flooding, mild temperatures with clear skies, and low pest and disease incidence during this period allows farmers to obtain yields higher than from the regular post-monsoon kharif season — maize in Bihar is a clear example.
- It is rabi, not kharif, that’s going to increasingly impart stability to India’s agricultural output.
Price stabilisation strategy:
- Linked to all this is also an effective price stabilisation strategy.
- The lack of it is apparent from the same onions, which were retailing at Rs 100/kg in December, being dumped barely four months later by Maharashtra farmers at Rs 7/kg.
- The Narendra Modi government learnt the right lessons from the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections debacle by focusing on procurement of pulses and building a buffer stock.
- Today, it isn’t arhar, but POT (potato, onion, tomato) that is giving the ruling alliance the jitters.
- Production fluctuations are inevitable with climate change and irregular rainfall patterns.
- The way to manage them is not by banning exports and imposing stock holding limits in onions or forcing cold store owners to release potatoes deposited with them.
- The government should create a buffer stock of not just foodgrains, but even onion, potato, sugar, edible oil, milk powder and white butter, to enable non-distortive marketing intervention.
Conclusion:
- Unpredictable rainfall is affecting kharif crop, retail prices. Government must create buffer stock.
Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam
E-Books Download for UPSC IAS Exams
General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Material
Prelims Questions:
Q.1) With reference to the National Super Computing Mission (NSM), consider the following statements:
1. A total of 50 Centrally Funded Institutions have been inducted into National Super Computing Mission (NSM).
2. The objective of the NSM is to empower technology institutions with high-performance computing capabilities that can be used for solving socially relevant, computationally intensive problems.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer: B
Mains Questions:
Q.1) What are the causes for rising in Onion prices? Do you think theprice stabilisation strategy became useful to resolve this?