Dhaka Bureau: Bangladesh produces three types of onions. Bulb Onion (Bari Onion-1, Bari Onion-4, and Laltir King), a small amount of Summer Bari Onion-5, and local varieties of Murikata Onion. In this way, the demand cannot be met even by planting different varieties of onions. Agricultural scientists blame the lack of proper research, extension, planning, and coordination on onions in this case.
From 2011–2012 to the 2022–2023 fiscal year, the amount of land under onion production has increased by 41 percent in 10–11 years. According to the Directorate of Agricultural Extension, in the fiscal year 2011–12, about 19 lakh metric tons of onions were produced in the country. And in the fiscal year 2022–23, 34 lakh, 60 thousand tons of onions have been produced. A production target of 3.6 lakh metric tons has been set for the financial year 2023–24. Production is close to doubling.
However, at least 30 percent of the produced onions, i.e., 10 to 11 lakh tons of onions, are lost, resulting in a decrease in net production from the total production to about 22 to 23 tons. Our demand is 30 to 32 lakh metric tons. On the contrary, 10 to 11 lakh metric tons are met by imports.
Agricultural scientists say that onions cannot be stored, so they have to depend on imports. Importing will not be required if stored properly. Besides, he also advised taking a proper action plan for crop growth and producing good-quality seeds.
The chief scientific officer of the spice research center of the Agricultural Research Institute. Shailendra Nath Majumder said, if not imported, it is possible to take the production to 40 lakh tons in the next two years. He said farmers are affected if imported. Therefore, to be self-sufficient in production, imports should be stopped. He said that after production, onions are dried. It reduces weight by 10 to 12 percent. It’s normal.
Officials of the Agricultural Research Institute say that market monitoring should be done along with onion production. Now the price of onions should not be more than 80 to 100 rupees. Agricultural scientists say that the farmers are not interested in cultivation due to the lack of cold storage facilities in all the districts where onions are cultivated. But if there is cold storage, spoilage would be reduced. And if they get such benefits, the farmers would be interested in planting more onions.
As there is no storage facility, they store onions in the native way. But the onion rots due to not getting the temperature required to store it. At the same time, many onion plants grow. Then they have to suffer losses. Because of this, farmers often sell all the onions at low prices during the production season. Farmers save onions on their own initiative.
Officials of the Directorate of Agriculture Marketing say that despite an average of 30 percent wastage, nearly 50 percent of the produce in Rajshahi is wasted due to improper storage. Helal Uddin, director of the Onion and Garlic Preservation System Modernization and Marketing Program Development Project at the farmer level of the Agriculture Marketing Department, said that when onions are picked from the field in Bangladesh, the temperature is 30 degrees Celsius. If it is to be kept in cold storage, its temperature should be kept at minus 4 degrees Celsius. Cold storage takes 20 to 25 days to bring down this temperature. It will cost more electricity. Which is also expensive. So we invented another technology. He said, I have constructed 133 model houses in the same way that farmers store onions. One house can store 10 tons of onions in one season. Besides, 112 more houses will be constructed. In total, 2,450 tons of onions can be stored in 250 houses. But this saving is negligible compared to the total production. He said that more model houses need to be built in this way.
