A drastic rise in cost of cultivation has dealt a blow to onion farmers in Pabna.

Cultivation cost rose by almost double this year due to high price of onion bulb, increased labour cost and higher cost of leasing agricultural land, said farmers.

Md Kamruzzaman, a leading onion farmer from Durgapur village under Pabna's Sujanagar upazila, said he has a target of cultivating early variety (Mulkata) onion on 80 bighas of land this year.

"I took lease of around eight bighas of land like I did last year. However, it cost be Tk 20,000 for leasing each bigha of land this year, compared to Tk 8,000 last year," he said.

Meanwhile, price of onion bulbs soared up recently.

"Price of each maund onion bulb went up from Tk 3,500-4,000 last year to Tk 7,000-8,000 this year. The cost of labour also rose from Tk 400 to Tk 500 daily. As such, our cost of cultivation has doubled this year to Tk 1.25 lakh per bigha from Tk 60-65 thousand last year," said Md Samsul Islam, an onion farmer of Kharpara village in Sujanagar upazila.

Due to the high market price of onion, farmers sold most of their onion, thereby causing a shortage of onion bulbs for cultivation, which eventually drove up the price of bulbs, said Kamruzzaman.

"Cultivation cost of early onion variety has increased by 80-90 percent from Tk 28per kilogramme last year to Tk 50-55 this year," said Md Ashikur Rahman, a sub-assistant agriculture officer of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Pabna.

A total of 52,801 hectares of land in the district have been brought under onion cultivation this year with a target to produce 7.82 lakh tones of onion. Of this, early onions are being cultivated on 8,510 hectares of land, with a target of 1.22 lakh tones, the official also said.

"Pabna is a leading onion producing hub in the country. At least 25-30 percent of the country's total onion production comes from Pabna," said Dr Md Jamal Uddin, deputy director of DAE in Pabna.

Farmers got a bumper yield and high price of onion last year, so they will have no problem to cultivate onion this time, he added.