Seed crisis poses threat to onion farming in Pabna
Seed crisis poses threat to onion farming in Pabna
Massive rotting wreaks havoc on the preserved vegetable
Onion cultivation faces seatback due to seed crisis in the country's largest onion producing district that saw early rotting of the preserved onion this year.
“Last year I bought a kg of onion seed for Tk 1200 but the price ranges from Tk 3000 to 3500 this year,” said Abul Hossain, an onion farmer of Durgapur village in Sujanagar upazila under the district.
"I have prepared 14 bighas of land for onion cultivation but could not manage seeds for the purpose. I had preserved 400 maunds of onion including seeds to sell in December and January when the prices go up. But over a hundred maunds of the stored onion rotted and I sold the rest last month,” he said.
In last year, 5.21 lakh tonnes of onion was produced from 41,714 hectares of land in Pabna district and the yield was 70 thousand tonnes more than that of the previous year, said sources of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE).
“There is a target of onion cultivation on 42 thousand hectares of land in the district this year and we have given the requisition of 67 tonnes of seeds to BADC for the purpose. But the BADC has ensured supply of a meagre 680 kg of seeds,” said ABM Mostafizar Rahman, deputy director of DAE in Pabna.
Farmers in the district could not preserve seeds due to the massive rotting of the vegetable and it may cause seatback of onion cultivation there, he said.
“Farmers of the district increased onion cultivation in last few years. But incessant rain in the last harvesting period caused massive rotting of onion, and so, the farmers incurred huge losses this year. Twenty-five to 30 percent of the total yield was destroyed due to the rotting,” said AI Shahin, development officer of DAE.
“I have produced 200 maunds of onion this year and preserved the amount for more profit. But more than 50 maunds of the vegetable has already rotten in my house and I am selling it for throwaway prices," said Abdul Khaleque, of Jonaramchandrapur village of Pabna.
"We go bumper production of onion last season but the natural disaster during the harvesting period caused losses," said Arshed Ali of Bishnapur village in Santhia upazila.