Nafed to begin onion procurement from 3 mandis in Gujarat from Thursday
New Delhi (PTI): Cooperative Nafed will start procurement of kharif onion in Gujarat from Thursday from three mandis to provide relief to farmers, as prices have crashed in the wholesale markets, according to the Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry.
Nafed will begin onion procurement from Bhavnagar, Gondal and Porbandar mandis in Gujarat from March 9.
More centres will be opened from time to time as required, it said.
"Farmers are requested to bring their good quality and dried stock to the procurement centres to avail better rates at these centres," the ministry said.
Payments to the farmers will be done online, it added.
The ministry said the central government has planned this market intervention in order to give immediate relief to the farmers from crashing prices of onions in the state.
Nafed will procure kharif onion to address the issue of falling prices of onion in Gujarat and this move will provide stability to the onion market in the state, it added.
Onion is grown in all the states, however, Maharashtra is the leading producer with a share of around 43 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 16 per cent, Karnataka and Gujarat contributing around 9 per cent of national production.
The crop is harvested thrice a year during Kharif, Late Kharif and Rabi seasons.
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Hamas accepts cease-fire proposal for Gaza, but Israel's stance still uncertain
Jerusalem, May 6: Hamas announced Monday it has accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but there was no immediate word from Israel, leaving it uncertain whether a deal had been sealed to bring a halt to the seven-month-long war in Gaza.
It was the first glimmer of hope that a deal might avert further bloodshed. Hours earlier, Israel ordered some 100,000 Palestinians to begin evacuating the southern Gaza town of Rafah, signalling that an attack was imminent. The United States and other key allies of Israel oppose an offensive on Rafah, where around 1.4 million Palestinians, more than half of Gaza's population, are sheltering.
An official familiar with Israeli thinking said Israeli officials were examining the proposal, but the plan approved by Hamas was not the framework Israel proposed.
An American official also said the US was still waiting to learn more about the Hamas position and whether it reflected an agreement to what had already been signed off on by Israel and international negotiators or something else. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as a stance was still being formulated.
Details of the proposal have not been released. Touring the region last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had pressed Hamas to take the deal, and Egyptian officials said it called for a cease-fire of multiple stages starting with a limited hostage release and some Israeli troop pullbacks from Gaza. The two sides would also negotiate a “permanent calm” that would lead to a full hostage release and greater Israeli withdrawal, they said.
