Traders at the yard, run by the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC), fear the country's onion shortage will be over only after December, when the first crop will hit the market. But even that will be insufficient, they said.

``The crisis is mainly due to severe damage to the crop in Nasik and Pune early this year. Besides there has been delay in supply from this yard, and the one in Khairtal (Rajasthan),'' explains R.K. Seta, secretary of the yard.

This year, nearly the entire onion crop was wiped out, so much so that the unripe second crop is being sold early to cash in on the shortage. ``These (unripe) onions spoil before being transported even 50 km,'' Seta said.

He said it was unfortunate enough that the Maharashtra crop had failed, but against that even the Khairtal crop yield was only 20 per cent of usual.

Now, all eyes are on the Gujarat crop, but it will be December by the time it hits the market. Moreover, given the Rs 500 per kg price of onion seed, many farmers are shying away from growing onion -- or arranging for seed from their own sources in the hope of a profit.

He also said that the government should set procurement price for onion, as has been done for wheat in Punjab, soya bean in Madhya Pradesh, groundnut in Gujarat.

Once during bumper crop, the Gujarat government had fixed a procurement price of Rs 50 per quintal, which was raised to Rs 70, but even then, farmers claimed, they had been unable to recover production cost.

The Gujarat Co-operative Onion Growers Federation (ONIFED) is sceptical of the centre's efforts. ``Even this January, when onion price rose to Rs 50 per kg, the centre did not turn its attention to the Mahua yard, where traders were sitting on mounds of onion, waiting for buyers,'' said K R Shah, an ONIFED advisor.

ONIFED chairman Sanat Mehta laments the apathy of the centre, especially NAFED, which he says has never attended to Gujarat, concentrating instead on Maharashtra. ``Neither have they established research stations here, nor have they arranged for cold storage, demoralising the farmers of this state,'' he said.

A commission agent agrees. He recalled the early 1980s, when farmers here buried their crop as the Rs 2 per kg price was too low to pay for even transportation. ``But in January this year, when price touched Rs 23 per kg, traders did not know whether to stock up and sell later. On both occasions, onion was left to rot in the yard,'' he said.

The Mahua yard receives 50,000 bags, about 2.5 lakh tonnes, of onion daily from the Mahua taluka, Rajula (Amreli district), Una, Dhoraji, Upleta, and Talaja. Since the Pune and Nasik yards suffered losses in the last two seasons, it has emerged as the biggest selling centre for onion. The Mahua town has 13 dehydration plants where onion is powdered or dried for export.