With food inflation still high at 16.91 per cent on account of the high prices of vegetables, milk and meat, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said his ministry had no direct role in the cultivation of perishables.
“The agriculture ministry is concerned with production of foodgrains like rice, wheat, sugarcane and pulses and does not have any direct role in cultivation of vegetables,” he told reporters.
“Farmers decide which crop to grow seeing local conditions and which mandi to sell them at,” he said.
Mr Pawar had recently said his ministry was not responsible for rising prices, citing the Cabinet’s collective responsibility.
Mr Pawar said onion prices have started falling with an increase in arrivals from Bhavnagar (Gujarat) and Nashik (Maharashtra). But despite the slide in the wholesale onion price at Delhi’s Azadpur mandi, retail prices are still high at `50-60 per kg. It is no better in other metros, where it is also selling for `50-65 per kg.
Tomato prices are also rising: this too is in the `50-60 per kg range.
Mr Pawar said his ministry will “provide a subsidy to farmers to build greenhouses for cultivation of vegetables in a 20-25 km radius around towns with a population of five lakh.”
In the past week, wholesale onion prices have fallen by `18 per kg in the Azadpur market.
The wholesale rate of onion, which had touched `50 per kg on January 13, had come down to `32 per kg on Tuesday.
The Azadpur market requires around 700-800 tonnes of onions every day.
Nearly 60 tonnes of onions from Pakistan, out of 200 tonnes from that country which arrived at Gujarat’s Mundra port on Friday, have now reached Delhi.