The machine is called an air flow machine, but farmers know it as the "onion AC". It allows onions to be stored for a long time, and demand for it is growing day by day in Faridpur. Made in Faridpur, the machine is now going beyond the district to different parts of the country, as a cheap way of storing onions.

It is being made at a factory called "Maa Metal" in Ambikapur bazar, Ambikapur union, Faridpur Sadar upazila, and is sold both locally and in various districts.

Onion prices are usually low at the start of the harvest season. Without long-term storage, growers are forced to sell cheaply before they can make a profit. Carrying losses, they store onions the traditional way on bamboo racks or platforms, but face problems such as sweating in high temperatures, bacterial infection, rotting from excess moisture and loss of colour.

Against this background, value-chain experts on the consultant team of the South-West Area Integrated Water Resources Planning and Management Project, implemented by the Water Development Board, developed the method of storing onions with this air flow machine, a technology called "onion storage through an air flow device".

At the Maa Metal factory in Ambikapur bazar, five workers were busy making machines, working day and night with barely a break amid the clang of metal. Buyers come from different places, and machines are also sold by phone: after payment by mobile, they are sent by courier across the country.

Three sizes are made, at three prices. A 10-tonne machine, which holds about 250 maunds of onions, costs Tk 15,000. A 12-tonne machine (300 maunds) costs Tk 17,000 and a 14-tonne machine (400 maunds) Tk 20,000.

The owner of Maa Metal, Mahidul Islam, told Jagonews24 that he started in 2022 by making ten machines on a trial basis. In 2023-24 he made 97 and sold them to farmers in different parts of the district. In the past three months of this year he has made about 400, sold to farmers in Rangpur, Rajshahi, Pabna, Meherpur and other districts as well as Faridpur. Buyers contact him by phone, pay, and he delivers by courier.

The factory owner, named in the same report as Muhidul Islam, said the machine draws air in underneath and holds it; the air then passes out through the onions. This keeps the onions' temperature under control, so they stay good for a long time and do not rot. If a bad onion is present, it dries out by itself and cannot spoil the ones beside it.

Md Ujjal Mia, an onion grower from Nagarkanda upazila who came to buy a machine, said onions keep well this way. Many farmers in his area profited last year by storing onions like this, so he bought one too. "Onions now fetch at most Tk 1,300 a maund. I have about 300 maunds of my own. I will store them this way instead of selling, and sell when the price rises," he said.

Akidul Sheikh, a buyer from Kadirdi in Boalmari, said he bought two machines this time because onions keep well with them.

Saltha farmer Inamul Hossain said onions stored with the machine stay good for a long time, and demand is growing as word spreads among farmers.

Onion grower Sohraf Hossain said the machine is installed in a roofed tin or brick room: a platform is built on the floor with bricks, a mat or bamboo matting is laid over it, and the machine is set inside. About 300 maunds of onions can be stored in 100 square feet for up to eight months, using only Tk 600 of electricity a month, with no other cost. He has stored 450 maunds this year with two machines.

Faridpur Sadar upazila agriculture officer Md Anwar Hossain said the technology has shown remarkable success. Onions can be stored for at least eight months, weight loss is only 25 per cent and rot is almost zero. The machine is becoming more popular with farmers by the day, he said.

Agriculturist Md Shahaduzzaman, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Faridpur, said the machine has brought real benefits to onion growers, and several hundred farmers in the district have profited from it. Under a project, free distribution of air flow machines to 600 farmers in the district has begun. This year 240 farmers will each receive Tk 27,000 in their bank accounts to buy a machine, and next year 360 farmers will each get Tk 27,000.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.