Summer onion cultivation expands slowly

Bangladesh is registering a slow spike in the cultivation of onions during summer with the government patronising the expansion to reduce high import dependence during the lean season from October to November.

Acreage of the bulb, a popular vegetable mainly used as spice, grew 8 percent year-on-year to 2,700 hectares in fiscal 2022-23.

Farmers bagged nearly 40,000 tonnes of onion during the year, data of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) showed.

For the current season, the DAE targets to bring 5,000 hectares under summer onion cultivation to produce 51,000 tonnes, said Md Rabiul Hoque Mazumder, additional director of crops wing at the DAE.

"We will give incentives to farmers, particularly seeds, to encourage them to grow onions during Kharip seasons," he said.

Kharip is typically divided into two seasons beginning from Kharip-1 (March 15 to June 15) and Kharip-2 (June 16 to October 15). Yield of summer onions is higher during Kharip-2, said Mazumder.

The DAE official said the government plans to provide incentives worth Tk 9,000 per bigha to farmers to promote the cultivation of onions and thereby increase domestic availability.

The government stepped in to bolster local production of onions in 2020, a year after domestic prices of bulb soared to a historic high of Tk 250 per kilogram. The price hike resulted from a ban on onion shipments by India, a major source of onion for Bangladesh to meet its deficit.

The country requires about 25 lakh tonnes of onion each year, according to an estimate by the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission.

And, as per official statistics, the country produces more than its requirement during the winter season. Yet, a big portion of the vegetable gets lost for lack of proper storage facilities and post-harvest losses, resulting in a shortfall of the bulb during the lean period.

The government took the initiative to promote cultivation of summer onions to increase supply during the lean period, said agricultural officials and researchers.

"Summer onion is a prospective crop and the government is providing support to expand its cultivation," said Mazumder.

Shahida Begum, an onion grower in Faridpur, a major onion producing hub, said farmers in the western bordering district Meherpur grow summer onions and her family has started cultivation this year.

As part of the initiative, her family has leased land in Birol upazila of the northwest district Dinajpur to cultivate onion on three acres this season.

"We expect to harvest the bulb in November, when the stock of winter onions at the farmers' end exhausts and prices remain higher," she added.

However, growing saplings of onions is challenging because of rainfall.

"It is tough. Rain has damaged a portion of my seedlings," she said.

Shahida also said the risk of heavy rainfall and flood are the two main challenges, but floods do not occur everywhere in the country.

Shailendra Nath Mozumder, principal scientific officer of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), said farmers were not habituated with onion cultivation earlier.

"Now, the major challenge is seed shortage. Production can be increased if we can produce seeds and make those available to farmers," he said. "If we can do that, we can increase locally grown onion to address the supply shortfall during the lean period."

"We also need to boost production of winter onions," said the BARI scientist, adding that farmers would be eager to cultivate onions if they are ensured profitable prices.

"Their interest should be protected by hiking the import duty during harvesting season," he added.

Md Noor Alam Chowdhury, program director of the summer onion project at Spice Research Center, said there are many potential districts for summer onion cultivation, namely Meherpur, Chuadanga, Kushtia, Pabna and Dinajpur.

"We will train farmers and field level agricultural officials in those regions where summer onions grow well. We will also provide seeds to farmers," he added.

(Our Faridpur correspondent contributed to the story)