RAJSHAHI, March 22, 2018 (BSS)-Commercial farming of onion- seed is gradually increasing in Rajshahi region including its high Barind tract, as demand for this spice is rising day by day.
Agriculturists, farmers and others stakeholders are expecting a bumper production of onion-seed this season due to a suitable climatic condition.
They are predicting that around one to two maunds of seed would be produced in one bigha of land during the forthcoming harvesting season. In the last sowing season, per kilograms of seed was sold at Taka 700 to Taka 950.
According to officials concerned, onion seed was cultivated on around 50 hectares of land in Godagari upazila and Taka 18,000 to 20,000 was spent for per bigha of land.
More than 550 farmers have become self-reliant through the commercial farming of the seed during the last 10 years in the upazila, which attracted many to onion seed farming.
Anwar Hossain of Pirijpur village told BSS that he had cultivated onion seed on two bighas of land last year and made a profit of Taka 42,000.
In the current season, he brought eight bighas of land under the same farming and he had to spend Taka 17,500 for each bigha of land.
After his retirement as a teacher, Shahab Uddin of Arizpur village had started onion-seed farming. Last year, he made a profit of Taka two lakh after cultivating the seed in five bighas of land. He cultivated the cash crop on 10 bighas of land this year.
Shahab Uddin said the onion-seed farming is risky but profitable than many other crops.
For this reason, the commercial farming is gradually rising and many farmers have changed their fate through the farming.
Currently, the farmers are seen lobbying with different public and private commercial banks, especially, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) to get loan for the farming contributing a lot to enhance the acreage, he added.
Additional Director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Mustafizur Rahman informed that some 2,500 farmers cultivated onion-seed on 75 hectares of land with a total production target of 20 metric tonnes in the region.
Due to the favorable climatic condition, he said that around 350 kilograms of seed would be harvested from per hectare of land.
Around 2,500 farmers would be benefited through the seed farming this season, he hoped. For now, he added that around 20,200 hectares of land were brought under onion farming in the region and most of the farmers cultivated Taherpuri variety as its yield is higher than any other variety.
Meanwhile, farmers and agriculturists are expecting that around 6.5 lakh tonnes of onion is likely to be produced in eight districts under Rajshahi Agricultural Zone during the current season.