Bimal Chandra Das and Sebika Rani Das, a couple in Mirsarai, Chattogram, have succeeded in growing onions commercially for the first time in the area. They plan to expand cultivation in future, and through them a new door to onion farming has opened in the region.

With advice and support from the upazila agriculture office, the couple are pinning their hopes on onions grown for the first time on 150 decimals of land at Char Chashrat in Ichhakhali union. Bimal once worked as a garden labourer in various countries. On returning home he took up farming in earnest on land left by his father and some sharecropped land. His main helper is his wife, Sebika Rani Das.

On a visit, the husband and wife were found lifting onions from the field. Farming seems to be their whole world, and the wife always helps her husband. Each of their onions weighs 100 to 120 grams.

Farmer Bimal Chandra Das said that last year he grew onions on a small plot with just Tk 7,000 of capital and earned Tk 30,000. This year he farmed commercially for the first time on 40 decimals of land, with the help of his wife Sebika Rani Das. They also farm fish, raise poultry, and grow garlic, rice, mustard, pulses, chillies, potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

Sebika Rani Das said: "Farming is everything to us. Husband and wife, we farm together. We don't need to buy anything from the market; everything is produced on our land. We sell various things we produce at the market. We have already started lifting onions from the field. The yield is quite good. If market prices hold, we hope to get a good price."

Mirsarai Upazila Agriculture Officer Pratap Chandra Roy said: "Onions usually do not do very well in the upazila. Last year we gave some onion seed under the improved spice varieties expansion project. They succeeded. This year Bimal Das grew Tahirpuri onions on his own initiative. They are fairly successful onion farmers. Seeing them, many farmers will turn to onion farming."

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