India, May 19 -- If the initial trend is any indication, the Centre's decision to buy onions from Nashik farmers to stabilise the wholesale price is not yielding a positive outcome so far. The wholesale onion prices in the country's biggest onion mandi at Lasalgaon in rural Nashik on Monday continued to range between Rs.800 to Rs.1,100.

Prices crashed due to low domestic demand and the stoppage of exports to Gulf countries because of the Iran-US situation. Centre decided to procure 2 lakh tons from Nashik onion growers through two central agencies to create a buffer stock and stabilise the onion wholesale price in the mandis.

Two central agencies -- National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India (NCCF) and National Agricultural Coop...