14 February,2011 07:06 AM IST | | J Dey
Reports reveal that Intelligence Bureau had forewarned PM and other cabinet ministers in October 2010 about the food inflation that followed
Remember the relentless hike in onion prices that had you paying Rs 100 for a kilogram not more than a couple of months ago? Well, rhetorical questions apart, all of that could have well been avoided had the government paid a tad more attention to what intelligence agencies had to say.
The intelligence report cautioned the government about the skewed rise in the wholesale rate of onions last year over the span of a month
MiD DAY found out that the Government of India was warned about the escalating prices of onion and other food produce affecting millions of poor families as far back as last October. But it did little to get a handle on the situation.
The Intelligence Bureau in a secret document had warned the prime minister, the finance minister and the home minister about how the wholesale price of onions in October last year had increased by 31 to 91 per cent from the month before. Retail prices in most markets were between Rs 22-35 per kg as compared to Rs 12-22 in September 2010, the report said.
The research documents, prepared by an officer of the rank of a director, went on to point the rising onion prices in the state on account of various factors, like heavy rainfall, poor transportation, and an upswing in demand because of exports and the festive season around Diwali.
The IB report also mentioned how the wholesale prices of potatoes had gone up by 16-41 per cent. The prices of pulses had 'softened' in the same period due to a good output of kharif pulses from 94.62 lakh hectares in 2009 to 113.88 lakh hectares in October 2010.
The report points to an increase in the yield of kharif onions by 15 to 25 per cent in states like Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat. This further resulted in lowering profits for farmers supplying food produce to Mumbai, as they had to compete with an influx of onions in the market.
However, despite the warning, the government decided to proscribe the export of onion. Insiders say middlemen may well have been behind the ban, so as to make the farmer go on a borrowing spree following losses due to extra onions in the domestic market.
So in a reactionary move, thousands of disabused onion growers in the state, three days back, decided not to sell their produce to brokers and middlemen who call the shots in the onion trading market ('Onion farmers to boycott brokers', February 11, 2011, MiD DAY).
Pimpalgaon APMC Secretary Sanjay Patil told MiD DAY that the farmers have approached the finance minister and the minister of agriculture and food processing to allow exports to stabilise the price.
"No decision has been taken yet," Patil lamented.
In a month-long extensive campaign, MiD DAY will trace the tangle of farmer-middleman-hoarder-politician nexus that is ultimately leaving a sour taste in your mouth.
Rs 25 per kg
The price onions are being sold at, after touching the three-digit figure late last December.
So far in the Mid Day campaign...
Peeling layers off the onion trade
As the hue and cry over an unprecedented hike in onion prices hitting R100/kg ebbs, MiD DAY exposes the invisible hand of the cartel behind the rise.
Economics of the vada pav
Prices of pulses and vatana, ingredients that go into making your favourite vada pav, go through a 150 percent hike from the farmer's hand till it reaches the retailer.
Blackmail on the fields
Vegetable mafia manage to arm-twist the farmer into selling stock at a ridiculously lowu00a0 price in the traders' market, as the farmer does not have the money to cart his goods directly to Mumbai.
