Prices of potato, onion to stabilise: Government

New Delhi: Prices of vegetables, mostly onions and potatoes, will stabilise in the market with the release of produce from storage, said the government.

A good monsoon resulted in an increase in the sowing of horticulture crops, including onion and potato, in many parts of the country in the ongoing kharif season, said the Ministry of Agriculture. 
 
Onion prices were stabilising as the quantity of rabi onion released in the market by farmers increased with higher mandi prices and the onset of monsoon rains, which increased the chances of storage loss due to high atmospheric moisture, said the ministry official.

The target area under kharif onion this year is 3.61 lakh hectares, which is 27 per cent higher than last year. In Karnataka, the top kharif onion-producing state, sowing is completed in 30 per cent of its targeted area of 1.50 lakh hectares, and sowing is making good progress in other major producing states, said the official.

Though potato is essentially a rabi crop, some quantities of kharif potatoes are produced in Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu. The kharif potato harvest from September to November augments the availability in the market, the official said.

The area under kharif potato this year is targeted to increase by 12 per cent over last year. Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have covered almost the entire targeted sowing area, while sowing in Karnataka and other states is in good progress. A total of 273.2 lakh tonnes of rabi potato have been stored in cold storage this year, which is sufficient to meet the consumption demand. The price of potatoes regulates the rate at which they're released from cold storage during the storage period from March to December.

Prices of onion and potato continue to be high this year due to lower output last year. A dry summer and low water in reservoirs since April have strained supplies of many vegetables, such as okra, gourds, beans, and cabbage. This has forced consumers to shift towards potato, onionsand tomato. This has led to an increase in prices, said the official.