Divergence of onion prices in Maharashtra: A temporal variation analysis at wholesale and retail level

Horticultural commodities like onion are subjected to high price volatility due to lack of storage, transportation and processing facilities, aside from weather and institutional risks. There are also wide fluctuations in monthly prices of onion, which lead to seasonality and which cause a perpetual concern to producers. Fluctuations in annual prices, which are generally cyclical in nature, also affect the export performance. In the light of this background, the present study seeks to examine the price movement of onion in the state of Maharashtra with focus on nature of price fluctuations at wholesale and retail levels. The study clearly underscored the fact that the cyclical fluctuations in annual and monthly prices of onion led to a cause of perpetual concern to producers since their share in consumer's price still remained at 50 per cent. One of the major factors responsible for lower share of producer in retail prices of onion was traced in higher cumulative marketing margins cornered by various market functionaries within the channel. One of the recommendations of the study was in favour of exercising various regulative measures to check practices of these functionaries involved in the marketing of high value crops. It is to be noted that due to inadequate storage facilities most of the farmers prefer to dispose of their produce immediately after harvest, which results in low prices on offer. This obviously necessitates developing adequate post harvest infrastructure facilities for high value crops in order to protect farmers from undue low prices for their produce.