Maharashtra govt to set up irradiation centres after years of battling volatile onion prices

Mumbai: After years of trying to control onion prices that has even impacted it electorally, the Maharashtra government is soon coming up with a policy that proposes to establish dedicated irradiation centres for onions.

While the Maharashtra government had spoken of the need to have irradiation facilities in the past, this time there is an urgency to put it into practice, possibly after the Mahayuti alliance suffered a severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls.

In the onion-producing regions, farmers had voted against the Mahayuti candidates as they were upset over the move to put export controls on onions. Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar had then blamed the export restrictions imposed in December 2023. The Mahayuti suffered severe jolts in the onion-producing regions of Nashik, Pune, Ahmednagar and Solapur.


Maharashtra produces 35-40% of the country's onions. However, farmers in the state suffer from high price volatility either due to low prices due to oversupply or due to the Centre's intervention like putting export controls on the bulb which bring prices down.

Onion is a perishable commodity and extending the shelf life of onions by several months would enable farmers to store onions when prices drop and sell them when they go up.

According to MITRA, the state government think tank which has worked on the policy, the state can set up irradiation centres in onion-producing districts in the next two to three months.