Readers’ Voice

Onions farming and preservation

Onion is an essential ingredient for cooking daily food for inhabitants of Bangladesh.

In recent years the government felt embarrassed owing to shortage and abnormal prices fluctuations.

People also confront difficulty to get enough onions at affordable prices throughout the year.

Statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture have revealed that during the financial year 2022-23 in Bangladesh 3.4 million metric tons of onion were grown.

It was estimated that current demand for onion is 2.8 million metric tons.

As we could not facilitate scientific arrangements for preserving onions, 30%( about one million metric tons) of onions got rotten.

Taking into consideration those significant factors we will have to make plans to cater full demand of onion for the people throughout the year.

We know that the soil and climate of Munshiganj district are very suitable for onion growing and in the district the highest numbers of potato cold storages are available.

But onions are not cultivated in Munshiganj. In recent years we produced more potatoes than we required.

In this scenario, a project of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) is necessary for Munshiganj to grow and preserve onions.

Half of potato growing fields in Munshiganj should be engaged for cultivating high yield onions , the DAE will have to motivate and provide seed, fertilizer and know how to farmers to grow onions.

They will have to motivate potato cold storages providing technical know-how to preserve onions in potato cold storages.

In addition to that, the government will have to provide easy loans to establish onion cold storages in existing onion growing hub districts like Faridpur, Meherpur, Kustiya, Shirajganj etc.
I hope these measures will make Bangladesh self-sufficient in onions within the next two years.

Md Ashraf Hossain
Central Bashabo, Dhaka