‘Summer onion growers to get more incentive’

Summer onion producers will be provided with more government incentives, Agriculture Secretary Wahida Akter said yesterday.

The government is now emphasising production of summer onion to achieve self-sufficiency for the crop, she said.

"We are providing growers with seeds and fertilisers free of cost to popularise summer onion farming. We have already started getting the benefits of extending free seeds," Akter added.

She also said more incentives will be disbursed to increase summer onion production from next year and this will help the government meet onion demand in the local market.

The secretary made these comments while exchanging views with farmers on summer onion production at Isakhali village under Meherpur district, the agricultural ministry said in a statement.

The agriculture ministry has been distributing free seeds and fertilisers as incentives to farmers for the last few years to increase summer onion production.

The government has so far given more than Tk 32 crore as incentives in this regard.

The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) targets bringing 5,000 hectares under summer onion cultivation to produce 51,000 tonnes of the vegetable, said Md Rabiul Hoque Mazumder, additional director of the crops wing at the DAE.

Thanks to the incentives, 39,000 tonnes of summer onions were produced in fiscal 2022-23 after 37,000 tonnes the year prior, according to the statement.