Early season onions bring no joy for farmers

Farmers in Pabna, the biggest onion producing region in Bangladesh, have started harvesting a quick growing variety of the bulb called Kondo, but are being left disappointed by the poor prices currently on offer in local markets.

The availability of leftover stock, including imports, from last year has reduced the demand for new onions this season, causing a massive fall in prices, according to growers and traders.

"I used to cultivate different types of onion, a large portion of which were the Kondo variety, on about 70 bighas of land every year," said Md Kamruzzaman, a farmer from Durgapur village under Sujanagar upazila.

Similarly, Kamruzzaman grew the Kondo variety on 25 bighas of land this year but the poor market prices have brought him no joy.

He got about 70 maunds of onion from each bigha, which cost up to Tk 40,000 to cultivate.

"This year, each maund [37 kilogrammes] of the Kondo variety is selling for Tk 850 even though the same crop was worth Tk 1,300 per maund during the harvesting period in early winter last year," the farmer added.

Md Idris Ali, a development officer of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Pabna, said the Kondo variety are planted before winter to ensure early production.

Traditional onions are cultivated from mid-December and arrive in the markets by March or April the following year. So, the Kondo variety caters to demand in the meantime and farmers usually get the expected profit as a result.

A total of 8,610 hectares of land are being used to grow the Kondo variety this year with the target of producing some 1.07 tonnes of the cool-weather crop.

Other than that, farmers are now busy cultivating seed onions on 44,810 hectares of land but considering the poor prices for Kondo onions, many have reduced their cultivation target.

Md Montu Khan, an onion farmer of Ulat village in Sujaanagar upazila, aimed to cultivate at least 10 bighas of seed onion after harvesting two bighas of the Kondo variety.

Now though, he plans to cultivate seven bighas of the crop instead in fears of not getting the expected profit.

"Sales of quick growing onions helps manage the cultivation cost of seed onions but this year, I am struggling to even regain by production cost," he said.

Like Khan, most onion farmers are planning to cut their onion cultivation target this year.

Farmers say one of the main reasons for the low prices is that imported onions and last season's reserves are still available in the market.

"I have at least 100 maunds of onion from last year. Now, more than 1,500 maunds of the Kondo variety have been added to the stock but I have been unable to achieve good sales due to poor demand," he said, urging officials to stop onion imports for the sake of local farmers.

What's worse, farmers have to sell the Kondo variety as soon as possible as the crop does not keep well, Khan added.