Photo: Collected
Farmers of Pabna's Bera and Santhia upazilas were making losses in early onion cultivation for several years. They have seen good profits this year. Farmers and their families are happy with it. Because of this, there is a lot of interest among the farmers of these two upazilas to pick new onions in the market.
Santhia and Bera are one of the onion-producing upazilas in the country. In Santhia upazila, the target of onion cultivation has been set at 1 thousand 600 hectares of land and 15 thousand hectares of land of late varieties. On the other hand, in Bera upazila, there is a target of 1 thousand 800 hectares of Murikata and 2 thousand 900 hectares of Hali varieties of onion cultivation. In two upazilas, early varieties of onions have now started reaching the farmers' houses. On the other hand, farmers have started planting onions on the ground for two weeks.
Talking to the farmers, it is known that for three to four years, the farmers were making losses on the Murikata variety of onions. Last year, farmers sold chopped onions for Tk 20-25 per kg. But the production cost of onion per kg was 30 rupees. This time, the farmer is spending Tk 33-35 per kg of onion production. However, despite the increase in production cost compared to last time, farmers are selling onions at Tk 85-90 per kg. In this, the farmer is getting a profit of about 50 rupees per kg.
Going to the house of onion grower Sabdar Mandal of Ramnarayanpur village of Dhalarchar union of Bera upazila, it is seen that fresh onions are being picked up from the land and cleaned in the yard. After a day or two, they will be brought to the market after being exposed to the sun. While cleaning onions with family members, Laili Khatun, a farmer, said, "Last year we had a loss by growing onions. But this time both price and yield are good. So we are happy.
Onion farmer Abdul Latif was picking onions from the field in Komarpur village of the same union. He said, "For several years, I have seen that the price of onions decreases when it is time to grow. But this time it didn't happen, so good prices are available. If the market price is high during this period, the farmer's profit. And at other times, if the price is high, the hoarder makes a profit.
Last 25.12.23 went to Santhia's Bowlmari market and saw that a lot of new onions were up for sale. In wholesale, onion is sold for 3 thousand 400 to 3 thousand 700 per maund.
Raja Hossain, an onion seller at Bowlmari Hut, said that the farmers are getting good prices as onion imports have stopped. The import of new onions into the market is also high. Last year at this time, the farmer returned home crying after selling onions. Now they are returning home with great joy.
Santhia Upazila Agriculture Officer Sanjeev Kumar Goswami and Bera Upazila Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officer Yusuf Ali said that due to the good price in the market earlier, the farmers have planted onions on more land than the target. In the end, they are also getting good prices. If you get such a price, farmers will be encouraged to grow onions on more land in the future.
Source: Online/GFMM
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