District adminstration should be involved in onion procurement: Ministry

NEW DELHI: The Union Agriculture Ministry has suggested that district administration should be involved in procurement of onion to ensure transparency and check irregularities in the purchase process.

In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs B L Verma said, the Department of Agriculture constituted a fact finding committee to look into allegations of irregularities in the procurement of onions under Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) by National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED).

The department, vide OM (office memorandum) dated 4th November, 2024, "conveyed the suggestions that concerned district administration should be involved in the procurement process to ensure transparency and local oversight, to adopt biometric based verification of farmers, and payment to registered farmers bank account through Aadhaar Enabled Payment system", he added.


Onions for PSF buffer are procured by NAFED and National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India (NCCF) from farmers through Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs)/ Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs), wherein payments for the procured onions are transferred directly to the farmers' bank accounts.

In order to streamline the procurement of onions, the Department of Consumer Affairs engaged third party agencies to develop digital procurement support and information system. Through the system, procurement, storage and disposal of onions are being monitored.