Hyderabad: To check the onion crisis, a group of citizens have come together across all cities, asking people to reduce consumption of onions for one month.
This has been urged because of the fact that in Maharashtra, onions were sowed in June and the crop is expected to arrive in the market by mid September or October.
Prasad K., an agriculturist in Hyderabad said, “If we reduce the use of onions for a month, then the problem will get sorted out. The new crop will take time to arrive in the market but that will help stabilise the prices.”
This lesson comes from a similar situation in Japan where tomato crops were damaged and people stopped consuming tomatoes for a month.
Currently, in India, five lakh tonnes have been lost due to unseasonal rains in March. Apart from that, the agricultural experts say that the shortage became more accused due to hoarding by traders. Onions are being sold at Rs 75 to Rs 80 per kg.
Shobha Prasad, a real estate agent, who is zealously passing this message on WhatsApp and other social networking sites says, “We need to spread the message so that people can understand that it is a short-term crisis. We can opt for making food without the use of onions and try out new recipes. Or where there were six to seven onions used make way for only one or two.”
This is a citizens’ initiative because of the rising cost and they are sending messages and advocating less use of onions. They are also meeting with Hotels Association to ensure that they too cut down on the use of onions.
