Agriculture minister TB Jayachandra told newsmen here that he and horticulture minister Allum Veerabhadrappa would call on Union agriculture minister Nitish Kumar in a couple of days and urge him to lift the ban. There was an indication that the ban could be lifted as the Centre was likely to allow export of 20,000 tonnes of onion shortly.

He said there was a phenomenal increase in area under onion this year from 26,000 hectares to 86,000 hectares and the production was estimated at about one million tonnes. However, following the changes in climate, production was hit in Dharwad district leading to poor quality of onion arriving in the market. The state government in a bid to prevent distress sale by farmers, announced the setting up of a revolving fund of Rs 20 crore for market intervention and also announced a minimum procurement price of Rs 300 per quintal yesterday.