High price fails to boost onion growers in Rangpur region

Despite the unusual high price of onions that made headlines lately, farmers in northern districts are counting losses due to untimely rain that damaged vast onion fields this year.

Cultivation of the essential cooking ingredient starts in middle of November and continues till the end of December while harvest takes place in March and April.

“For fiscal year 2019-20, we have set a target to cultivate onion on 6,550 hectares of land and get 65,185 tonnes of produces. But we until now we could cultivate 5,500 hectares only,” said Rafiqul Islam, sub-assistant agriculture officer at Rangpur Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

In 2018-19 fiscal year, Rangpur DAE aimed to produce 75,548 tonnes of onion from 6,868 hectares of land in the region. The data shows that the targets had been downwards.

Untimely downpour due to climate change and ‘unwise import of onion throughout the year’ are the primary reasons behind the slump, according to farmers of Rangpur, Gaibandha, Nilphamari, Kurigram, and Lalmonirhat.

“Due to climate change, rainfall had been a common occurrence here during March and April when onion is harvested. As a result, the farmers are gradually losing interest in onion cultivation,” said Mohammad Moniruzzaman, deputy director at Rangpur DAE.

Dulal Hossain, a farmer of Khokshabari village in Rangpur Sadar upazila, said, “Last year, I cultivated onion on one acre of land but bulks of my produces were damaged by the untimely rain. So, this year I have cultivated 0.5 acres of land only.”

“I got 40 maunds of onion by cultivating the high yielding variety BARI-1 on 30 decimals of land last year. But I had to sell them at a nominal rate because the imported ones flooded the markets. So, this year I have cultivated only 15 decimals,” said Jahurul Islam, a farmer of Monthona village in Nilphamari‘s Kishoreganj upazila.

Yahia Abid, secretary of Bangladesh Krishak League, Nilphamari unit, opines that farmers in this region can be benefited if facilities like cold storage are set up here.

“If that happens farmers can preserve their perishable crops and put them up for sale when convenient. Also, the government should stop importing onion round the year, especially during the harvest season,” Abid told this paper.

 Mohammad Ali, additional director (AD) at Rangpur DAE, said, “We are trying to motivate the farmers by providing them fertilisers and seeds. This year, we have trained 17,500 farmers so that they do not give up spice cultivation.”