The Centre on Tuesday agreed to procure two lakh metric tonne onions through the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd from farmers in Maharashtra.
Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said procurement of onion crops at the 'historic' price of Rs 2,410 per quintal - a move in response to protests by farmers over the 40 per cent export duty on the staple vegetable - began at noon on Tuesday.
Shinde also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Amit Shah and Piyush Goyal for providing relief to onion producers by purchasing the 2 LMT of onion.