Government to buy 300,000 tonnes of onion in Rabi season: Piyush Goyal

Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday announced that the government agencies will buy 3 lakh tonnes of onion once the winter harvest starts coming in.

Goyal, who handles the Consumer Affairs, Food and Public distribution portfolio, said that last year, the overall buying of the rabi harvest stood at 2.5 lakh tonnes.

"I have already ordered an increased onion purchase from Rabi harvest from 2.5 lakh tonnes last year to 3 lakh tonnes this year to ensure that farmers get a fair price," Goyal told reporters here.

He added that the National Cooperative Consumers Federation and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) have also been instructed to pick up 'late kharif' harvest stocks, but are not finding the produce in the markets now.

Growers in Maharashtra have been protesting after a steep fall in onion prices over the last month. Marketplaces, including the largest one in Nashik district's Lasalgaon, have been shut down and onions have also been dumped