Good price inspires onion farmers
Women workers collect early variety onion, locally known as mulkata piaz, at a field of Khairash village in Chatmohar upazila under Pabna district. Photo: STAR
The farmers of the district have brought more lands under onion cultivation this year because of good market price of the vegetable. This year, thet price of per maund onion is Tk 800 to 900 while the last year's price was around Tk 700 District Agriculture Extension Department (AED) sources said a total of 33,983 hectares of land in nine upazilas of the district have been brought under onion cultivation, setting 3 lakh tonnes production target. Last year, the farmers produced 2.8 lakh tonnes of onion on 33,000 hectares of land in the upazilas , AED sources added. Santhia and Sujanagar upazilas are the highest onion producing areas of the country. Farmers have cultivated onion on 12,500 hectares of land in Sujanagar upazila and on 11,700 hectares of land in Santhia upazila, the sources further said. In the seven other upazilas, onion has been cultivated on 3,750 hectares of land in Pabna Sadar, 881 hectares of land in Ishwardi, 1210 hectares of land in Atghoria, 860 hectares of land in Chatmohar, 272 hectares in Vangura, 760 hectares in Faridpur and 2050 hectares of land in Bera. While visiting upazilas, this correspondent found the farmers still sowing onion seeds in many areas and collecting onion (locally called 'mulkata piaz') sown earlier. In November and December last year, farmers planted mulkata piaz (onion) on about 6,000 hectares of land that produced about 57,312 tonnes. Omar Ali Sheikh, a farmer of Manikhat village in Sujanagar upazila said “Good market price has inspired us to cultivate onion. We spend Tk 6,000 to 7,000 on each bigha of land and earn Tk 12,000 to 15,000 out of it.” Md Shahin, an official of Agriculture Extension Department, said “Weather condition was so far favourable for onion farming. We are expecting a high yield of onion this year”.
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