Commercial farming of onion-seed is gradually being expanded everywhere in the region including its high Barind tracts side by side with onion in the wake of gradual rising of its demands.
Agriculturists, farmers and others concerned are expecting bumper production of onion-seed this season due to the prevailing suitable climatic condition.Around two to three mounds of seed are being harvested from per bigha of land during the ongoing harvesting season. In this regard, they said per kilograms of seed was sold at Taka 600 to Taka 1,000 in the last sowing season. According to officials concerned, onion was cultivated on around 50 hectares of land for producing its seed only in Godagari Upazila and Taka 18,000 to 20,000 was spent for per bigha of land. More than 350 farmers have become self-reliant through the commercial farming during the last 10 years in the upazila encouraging many others to follow the same.
Akbar Hossain of Basudevpur village told BSS that he had cultivated onion seed on two bighas of land last year and made profit of Taka 40,000. In the current season, he brought seven bighas of land under the same farming and he had to spend Taka 17,000 for each bigha of land. After being retired from his teaching profession Shahab Uddin of Arizpur village had started onion-seed farming activities. In last year, he made profit of Taka two lakh after cultivation of five bighas of land. He cultivated the cash crop on 10 bighas of land this year. He said the onion-seed farming is risky but profitable than many other crops on the other. For this reason, he said the commercial farming is gradually rising and many farmers have changed their fate through the farming.Currently, the farmers are seen humming to different public and private commercial banks especially Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) to get loan for the farming contributing a lot to enhance the acreage, he added. Some of the farmers-Abu Hena Mostofa Kamal, Mojibur Rahman, Faruque Hossain, Akter Hossain, Younus Ali and Jakir Hossain are satisfied over the farming condition and they are optimistic about making profit of Taka 50,000 to one lakh from the outputs. Deputy Director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Saiful Islam informed that some 1,850 farmers cultivated onion-seed on 50 hectares of land with total production target of 17 metric tons in the district.Due to the favorable climatic condition, he said that around 350 kilograms of seed would be harvested from per hectare of land. Around 2,000 farmers would be benefited through the seed farming this season, he hoped.He added that around 7,376 hectares of land were brought under onion farming in the district and most of the farmers cultivate Taherpuri variety as its yield is higher than any other variety .”We have supplied onion-seed among the farmers free of cost for boosting the growers-level production,” said Saiful Islam.”So far, we are happy over the farming condition by virtue of the prevailing suitable climatic condition,” said Rahim Uddin, a successful farmer of Bargachhi village under Paba upazila. Meanwhile, farmers and agriculturists are expecting that around 5.5 lakh tonnes of onion would be produced in eight districts under Rajshahi Agricultural Zone during the current season. -BSS, Rajshahi
