JS body recommends prior plan to overcome ‘sudden crisis’ of onion

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DHAKA, Oct 29, 2020 (BSS) – Parliamentary standing committee on the agriculture ministry today recommended taking plan before six months to avoid ‘sudden crisis’ of onion as the country every year falls into acute onion crisis just before the arrival of new harvest in winter.

The recommendation was made at the 12th meeting of the committee held at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban here with committee chairperson Begum Matia Chowdhury in the chair.

The meeting said that the government would not impose restriction on onion import from India, but would keep the letters of credit (LC) suspended during local onion harvesting season to ensure fair price for the growers.

To achieve self-sufficiency in onion production, the government is piloting a new summer variety onion and planning its cultivation throughout the country after proving success of the variety, the meeting was told.

Committee members Agriculture Minister Dr M Abdur Razzaque, M Moslem Uddin, M Mamunur Rashid Kiron, Anwarul Abedin Khan, Joyasen Gupta, Umme Kulsum Smriti and Hosne Ara also participated in the meeting.

The JS committee also expressed resentment over a news article titled ‘farmers worried for substandard seeds’, as the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) so far didn’t take any further initiatives to deal with the issue.

The committee, however, recommended to the concerned ministry for taking further initiative after verifying the news.

Apart from this, the meeting discussed on multiple use of ‘black cumin’ as the committee advised the ministry to take further steps for increasing its production during the corona virus outbreak.

Agriculture secretary and other concerned agency chiefs, among others, attended the meeting.