No tears for onion

Website: http://nrcog.mah.nic.in/BESIDES meeting domestic requirements, India exports 1 to 1.1 million tonnes of onion worth Rs 1,000 crore.

In the past 25 years onion production has increased from 2.5 to 7.5 million tonnes. These figures are displayed prominently in the website under review.

There is no mention of the current crisis, though—an omission that speaks a lot about the way India’s agriculture establishment has treated the humble crop. The site showcases the efforts of the country’s premier onion research centre: the Pune-based National Centre for Onion and Garlic.

It does suggest that the country’s per hectare productivity is low compared to USA and China and ascribes this to susceptibility of all available genotypes to major pests. An invitation to bring in big agribusiness to the poor people’s staple?