Moreover, the import of 10,000 tonnes of onions on government account through National Agricultural Federation (Nafed) is too meagre an amount to meet the consumer requirements.

If farmers get their due share of the consumer price they will be encouraged to go in for more production of onions and other horticulture crops necessary for domestic consumption and exports, say experts from the field.

The average yield of onions which is at present 10 tonnes per hectare can be raised to 30 tonnes per hectare through proper incentives to farmers including seeds of high yielding varieties. The area coverage under onions which is at present 7.41 per cent of the area under vegetable cultivation can also be increased. So also the share of onions in vegetable cultivationwhich is at present 5.70 per cent can be considerably increased.

According to the estimate of the Horticulture Commission, the onion production in 1997-98 being 39 lakh tonne was marginally less than the previous year by 4 lakh tonne. The exports of onions this year till date is less than one lakh. The shorfall of 4 lakh tonne cannot certainly account for such a scarcity and steep rise in prices. The commission is also hopeful that the damage done to the crop this year through heavy rains will not be acute as in the previous year in which there was long spells of intermitent rains.

In the view of the commission the problem of `scarcity' and rising trend in prices lay somewhere else.

Researchers, T Haque and G Singh of the National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, Delhi, stated that the total cost incurred by the farmers in Pune in production and sale of onion is Rs 8,963 per acre, whilst gets a return of Rs 7,631 per acre. In Akola in Maharashtra, the total cost incurred by thefarmers is Rs 8,438 per acre whilst he gets a return of Rs 5,863 per acre. Similarly in Nanital in UP hills and in Jaipur in Rajasthan, the farmers invest Rs 16,776 per acre in onion cultivation and sales and gets a return of only Rs 12,070 per acre.

The researches of Haque and Singh are really astounding. They have stated that the fate of growers in other horticulture crops are exactly the same.They have stated that the major constraints to production of onions and other horticulture crops in Pune and Akola are shortage of water and labour, lack of credit facilities, lack of storage facilities and price fluctuations. In Nanital, the major constraints are low size of farm. lack of market facilities, lack of transportation, low price, lack of credit facilities, lack of storage facilities.

Viewing the overall situation of horticulture crops both Haque and Singh noted the high commission charges paid by growers at mandis, high establishment costs as well as annual cost of production, lag in production, pestsand disease, lack of appropriate post-harvest technology, lack of good quality plant material problem of pre-harvest contracting and absence of any processing industry.

Making an exclusive study of vegetable marketing conditions in hill regions of UP, SB Singh, vice-chancellor, GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology stated that the total marketing cost incurred by onion growers in the region is about Rs 87.76 per quintal.

This includes Rs 14.51 per quintal for grading, Rs 28.97 per quintal for packaging, Rs 19.44 per quintal for transportation, Rs 23.73 per quintal paid to the commission agents for sale.

The main buyers of vegetables from growers of hill regions of UP are the commission agents, wholesaler-cum-commission agents and local contractors. About 53.33 per cent of the growers sell their produces through the commission agents or wholesaler-cum-commission agents and 44.67 per cent of the growers sell through the local contractors.

In some horticulture produces like green peas, thetotal marketing cost incurred by the growers is as high as Rs 201.27 per quintal, in case of carrot it is Rs 180.32 per quintal, in case of capsicum, it is Rs 173.75 per quintal, in case of tomato it is Rs 158.85 per quintal, in case of ginger, it is Rs 139.16 per quintal, in case of cauliflower, it is Rs 132.11 per quintal, in case of cabbage it is Rs 112.25 per quintal, in case of potato it is Rs 96.07 per quintal and in case of raddish it is Rs 83.47 per quintal.

The grower tomato, cabbage, cauliflower and cucumber receive less than 50 per cent of the price paid by the ultimate user-the consumers, the range being 37.26 per cent in case of tomato to 49.16 per cent in case of cauliflower.

SK Jakhar, chairman, Iffco, while making a survey of the problems of vegetable growers in context of Azadpur market in Delhi stated that the producers' share in the consumer's price in case of tomato is only 28.4 per cent and in tinda it is only 23.1 per cent. The marketing cost incurred by producer in case of tomato is7.5 per cent and in tinda it is 10 per cent. The margin of the wholesale merchants in case of tomato is 19.6 per cent and in case of tinda is 14.9 per cent. The margin of the retailers in case of tinda is 48.4 per cent and in case of tomato is 41.2 per cent.

Similarly, PK Khosla, vice-chancellor, Himachal Pradesh Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya, in a research paper stated that traders' margin in Himachal Pradesh in horticulture produces is as high as 19 per cent to 40 per cent of the consumer rupee for different crops.