``The unexplained spiral in prices of vegetables in June/July and the prevailing skyrocketing onion prices are the result of deft manipulation by market forces,'' said Devinder Sharma, food expert and president of the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security.

Sharma was speaking on behalf of the forum, a collective of well-known agricultural scientists, farmers, policy makers, environmentalists and economists.

What clinches the forum's argument is the fact that two lakh tonnes of onion were actually exported between April and September this year. This, despite former Agriculture Minister, Chaturanan Mishra, warning that onion exports would result in a spurt in prices The price rise of onions and other vegetables was nothing but a case of people who control the market ``making hay while the political sunshines''.

They were aided in their enterprise by a serious dilution in the Essential Commodities Act on the recommendation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Sharma said the onion crisis was a warning of what could happen when market forces were allowed to have free play in India as desired by the World Bank and the IMF.

The present government, the forum concluded after consultations among its members, had deliberately re-casted its food distribution policy to favour traders at the cost of consumers, resulting in prices going through the roof.

Although the stupendous price-rise is the result of gross mismanagement on the food front, Sharma said affluent sections had no reason to complain leaving the poor to fend for themselves.

``The middle class, carried away by the easy availability of trendy and branded electronic goods and household appliances, has been asking for removal of controls over private trade, thinking that the same would apply to commodities,'' Sharma said.

Despitethe government's claims, there has been no appreciable fall in onion production this year, as borne out by the fact that farmers in the onion-growing belt are not complaining, he said.

``In the event of a shortfall the farmers would have cried hoarse over the resulting loss of income. Even if we accept that there has been a decline in production to the tune of ten to 20 per cent there is no reason for prices to jump from Rs 6 per kg in May to Rs 60 per kg in October,'' Sharma pointed out.

and even pointed out that the onion price rise was just a taste of the liberalisation process.

It is interesting to note, he said, that outgoing Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma had actually opined that poor people do not eat onions -- a statement that may have cost him his job.

Sharma said the people who were demanding that the government withdraw from production and marketing of essential commodities ended up queuing up at Mother Dairy super bazaar outlets for onions.

According to Sharma, many members ofthe forum were agricultural scientists who could not speak up because they were in the government.

In fact even in the the months of June and July there was no significant fall in vegetable production except for a disease attack on potato crops. ``The simple fact is that farmers received low prices for their produce while traders made a killing.''

It is ironical that India, the second largest producer of onions in the world, now has to import onions and consumption has fallen drastically.That the Ministry of Agriculture has failed to come to grips with the problem can be seen in its action plan for vegetable production, Sharma said.

``What is not being understood is that what this country really needs is post-harvest management and an effective market structure coupled with sound price mechanism,'' he said.

States too want to import onions

NEW DELHI: Concerned over rising onion prices, various State Governments have asked the Centre to permit them to import onions. But the Centre willconsider the issue only after reviewing the supply situation fully, according to a top Civil Supplies ministry official.

"The present onion situation is under review. After reviewing the supply situation and taking into consideration the new crop production, we will decide on demands from some state governments to import onion," Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Secretary N N Mookherjee told PTI.

Andhra Pradesh has sought import of 5,000 tonnes. Maharashtra, on the other hand, has asked the Centre to allocate 7,000 tonnes of the 10,000 tonnes being imported from Dubai and Iran.Government on Thursday decided to import 10,000 tonnes and banned export of the vegetable. It also allowed Delhi Government to import another 3,000 tonnes.

These measures were taken at a meeting of top government officials to tackle the issue of high onion prices and the imported consignments are likely to arrive in Mumbai on October 15 with the landed costs likely to be Rs 16 per kg.