An investigation on performance of onion price and market arrivals in major Indian markets

Abstract

Onion is a significant and essential commodity used in all the Indian delicacies either in raw form or dehydrated form to add flavour and taste to cuisine. India is the 2^nd largest producer of onion next to china and it is also 2^nd highest yielded vegetable in India. Though it shares a considerable amount of area and production among all the vegetables along with high marketable surplus, it fails to approve steady price throughout the year. Instability in market arrival contributing to the price fluctuations is mainly caused by substantial dependence on meteorological conditions and perishable nature of the crop. Often this high price fluctuation and variation in price causes suffering to the farmers by affecting their income level. It impacts the consumers adversely and also causes inefficiency in the functioning of the market. Realising the importance of the situation, through this paper it has been investigated. The trends in market arrival were positive in three markets except Azadpur. Trend in nominal price is found positive and for real price it was found negative in all the markets. Seasonal index showed that the arrival in different markets remained on the higher side during the peak harvesting season of the particular region and it collides with the low seasonal price index. Variability index revealed the existence of high variability for both of price and arrivals of onion. However, because of presence of significant seasonality in prices there is scope for increasing the income of farmers by concentrating on marketing during lean periods.