Farmers formed a human chain and demonstrated on the Pabna-Sujanagar road, protesting the falling prices of early-variety onions, as they fear they may not recover the production costs of the edible bulb this season.

The prices of Mulkata, an early variety of onion, have gradually fallen, adding to the concerns of farmers already burdened by increased production costs in Pabna, which produces around 30 percent of the onions grown in Bangladesh each year.

'I sold each maund of onions for Tk 2,000 last week, but the price dropped to a 10-year low of Tk 1,400 this week,' said Md Kamruzzaman, a prominent onion farmer from Durgapur village in Sujanagar upazila of Pabna.

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Onion prices fall as supply ramped up

"Every year, I cultivate onion on around 80 bighas of land. I used 8 bighas this year for the early variety," he said.

The farmer said he had to spend Tk 1 lakh on each bigha this year, but he could produce only Tk 70,000 to Tk 80,000 worth of the early variety.

"Onion prices are decreasing every day. If this downward trend continues, it will be very difficult to even recover the production costs," said Samsul Islam, another onion farmer.

"Farmers were willing to spend more on onion cultivation last season because prices were quite good then," he added.

However, prices have been falling drastically since the early variety harvest began in mid-December, he said.

"During the cultivation period, each maund of onion bulb was sold at Tk 6,000 to 7,000, which came down to Tk 3,500 to 4,000 during the harvesting period last year," he said.

But this year onion prices decreased by around 60-70 percent, Islam said.

Last year, the onion production cost for each bigha was Tk 60,000 to 70,000, which hit Tk 1 lakh this year because of the rising spending on bulb purchase, labourers and land lease, he said.

Md Rabiul Islam, a wholesale trader of the Pushpopara wholesale market, attributed the fall in onion prices to an increase in its supply in the market.

Thanks to the beginning of the harvesting season, the wholesale market is now full of the new onions, he said.

The early variety requires to be sold quickly, as these cannot be preserved for weeks, he said.

Around 20 to 22 tonnes of onions arrive daily at the Pushpopara wholesale market, most of which are sold to retail traders, he said.

Both the early variety and the Indian variety of onions reach the market at the same time, leading to a price drop, he added.

Farmers aim to produce 7.82 lakh tonnes of onions this year from 52,801 hectares of land, according to data from the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Pabna.

Before the arrival of seed onions, this year's production target for the early variety was 1.22 lakh tonnes from 8,961 hectares.

"Although the prices of early variety onions have fallen drastically, farmers still have a chance to make a profit in the upcoming seed onion season," said Md Ashikur Rahman, a development officer at the DAE in Pabna.

On December 25, the farmers dumped onions on the Pabna-Sujanagar road, urging the government to ensure better prices for onion.

They also demanded the government stop bringing imported onion to the market when the harvesting season begins in Bangladesh.