Onion farmers in Natore are suffering heavy losses, unable to get a fair price even at the height of the season. They are worried because they cannot recover their production costs. Farmers and traders see imports of onions from India as the main reason for the fall in prices.

Onion farmers said rain shortly before harvest had cut yields in the region this year, while higher prices of fertiliser, seed, pesticide and labour had pushed up production costs. Growing the Laila or bulb (kanda) type of onion cost Tk 15,000 to Tk 20,000 a bigha.

Growing various local varieties, on the other hand, cost Tk 40,000 to Tk 50,000 a bigha. At current market prices farmers are not recovering these costs.

Naldanga haat is Natore's largest onion market. There, onions of various kinds were selling at Tk 800 to Tk 1,000 a maund depending on size.

At the haat, Md Saidul Islam, a farmer from Madhabpur village in Naldanga, said: "We are selling onions at Tk 600-700 a maund. We are not getting even half our cost."

Bimal Kumar, an onion seller, said: "I leased 1 bigha for Tk 40,000 and bought seed at Tk 3,000 a maund. Fertiliser and pesticide are also dearer, so production costs have risen. It cost more than Tk 50,000 a bigha. I am getting a yield of 50 to 60 maunds. After transport costs, we can't even recover what we spent."

Rana Ahmed and Zahurul Islam, onion wholesalers at Naldanga haat, said Naldanga upazila alone produces 54,000 tonnes of onions. Other districts have storage facilities for onions, but Natore has none, and some onions rot when stored by traditional methods. So even when prices rise later, the real growers do not get that price and have to count losses.

The two traders said prices had fallen because onions imported from India during the season reached the market at the same time as the domestic crop.

Naldanga upazila agriculture officer Md Sabuj Ali said farmers were getting low prices compared with their costs. To help them store onions, the agriculture department is giving advice and distributing some fans to farmers to prevent rotting.

Habibul Islam Khan, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), said onions of the bulb and seedling types had been grown on 7,304 hectares in the district this season, with a production target of 133,505 tonnes. However, rain before harvest had reduced production somewhat, he said.

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