Sources in the ministry termed NAFED chairman Ajit Kumar Singh's statement blaming the Centre for the crisis ``misleading'' and discounted his remark that there was a shortage of onion seeds.

In a release, the Agriculture Ministry said that seeds for raising nursery for Rabi onions have already been sown and ``no shortage of seeds is reported.'' It however admitted that the seed prices this year were on the higher side because of high prices of onion.

The total production for 1998-99 is likely to be 44.56 lakh tonnes, an increase of about 7.6 lakh tonnes over last year. This includes Kharif crop production of 8.3 lakh tonnes, late kharif crop of 8.6 lakh tonnes and Rabi (1998-99) of 27.6 lakh tonnes.

The ministry said that efforts were being made to achievethe production target through prompt availability of seeds, adoption of advance production technology, off-season growing in non-conventional areas, arrangements for market price support price and creation of corpus funds.

About 7 per cent of onion seeds is made available through the organised sector and the rest is arranged by farmers through exchange of seeds or through private traders. Considering the high cost of onion, 2,000 quintals of additional seeds will be produced through a contigency plan to meet the demand in the event of any shortage, the ministry said.