Centre will bring in amendments to the essential commodities Act to achieve this purpose: Thomas Union Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies K.V. Thomas has said the Central government will soon institute mechanisms to regulate private retail chains in the context of the fluctuating price regime and shortages in the supply of essential commodities. Addressing a ‘meet-the-press' programme organised by the Kesari Memorial Journalist Trust here on Saturday, Prof....

Onion prices have crashed at Lasalgaon, Nashik’s Wholesale Market due to sudden increase in the supply. Wholesale onion prices have plummetted to Rs 13 a kg in Lasalgaon. On Saturday morning average quality onion price at Lasalgaon was Rs 2600 per quintal (Rs 26 per kg). On Monday, it came down to Rs 1300 per quintal. The sudden downturn in onion prices seems to have been triggered by the fact that the...

With surplus onion in markets across the country, there is finally some relief for the consumers as prices of the bulb fell by about Rs1,000-Rs1,500 per quintal on Monday. However, it irked farmers so much that they shut down the Wholesale Market at Lasalgaon in Nashik in the afternoon and demanded lifting of the ongoing export ban. The Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) Wholesale Market opened on Monday with onions...

The past several months have seen much tumult. From the Commonwealth Games (CWG) to 2G, with garnishing from the Adarsh housing cooperative and the loan fraud, all have provided high octane fodder to Indian politics and the media. However, since the last week of December 2010, another element has intruded into the political/media space, and that is the rising prices of vegetables. Vegetable prices show a seasonal variation, with prices dropping...

An innovative mechanism to save farmers from exploiting traders, which India implemented as a national model in the 70s, is now being blamed for rising vegetable prices.     Agricultural produce marketing committees (APMCs) have become archaic and vegetables and fruits need to be taken out of these local market hubs, analysts say. “They have turned into platform for hoarders, rather than a buyer-seller platform,” farm expert Sompal, who was formerly union agriculture...