DHAKA: Onion production has almost doubled in the country in last eight years with farmers getting handsome returns which can help boost cultivation of the spice item, insiders said. Despite having a robust domestic production, big importers and their allied traders hold a major market share, depriving the consumers of buying onion at cheaper rate, market observers said.
Official data showed that onion output has increased by 93.5 per cent in the country in last eight years between fiscal year (FY) 2008 and FY 2015. Onion production has increased to 1.704 million tonnes in FY’15 from 0.889 million tonnes in FY’08, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data showed. Onion acreage increased to 0.191 million hectares in FY’16 from 0.135 million hectares in FY’08, according to the BBS data.
Onion output increased sharply in last three years. In FY’13, production reached 1.168 million tonnes while it increased to 1.387 million tonnes in FY’14 and 1.704 million tonnes in FY’15. The government projected an annual output of 1.9 million tonnes in FY’16. The final data will be made public within few days, said an official at the Agriculture Wing of BBS. Deputy Director of Horticulture Wing under Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Dr Md Azhar Ali said the country is now almost self-sufficient in onion.
Land brought under onion farming and its production have increased significantly in last few years as farmers have been getting handsome prices, he said, adding that onion acreage increased in more districts apart from Pabna, Faridpur and Jessore regions. Mr Ali said varieties of high-yielding seed supplied by state-run Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC), private seed companies and farmers help increase production.
