Onion farmers of Chatmohar under Pabna district are expecting a good harvest of Potato seed during the current season. The climate of the region is so far suitable for the onion production and the onion plants are now full of spectacular white flowers.
According to Agriculture Office in Chatmohar, the onion has been cultivated on 1,150 hectares of land in Chatmohar. Of those, the onion-saplings has been cultivated on 490 hectares of land and the Root (Kanda) onion has been cultivated on 640 hectares. Farmers have already started to harvest the root-onion from their fields. Around 14 metric tonnes of root-onions are expected to produce from one hectare of land.
Haider Ali of Katenga village of the upazila has been producing onion seed for the last 20-years. He has cultivated root onion to produce onion seed on more than two bighas of land. He informed, the land is needed to cultivate several times and fertilisers like TSP and Potash and insecticides are needed to apply and other necessary cares like weeding are required to cultivate the onion. He further said it costs him nearly Tk 125,000 to cultivate the onion. He hoped to produce some 200 kilograms of onion seed from the field.
Haider Ali mentioned, the regular price of onion seed is Taka 1,500 to 2,000 per kilogram. Sometimes, the price also increased to Taka 5,000 per kilogram.
He hoped to earn Taka 200,000 to 250,000 by selling onion seeds from his fields.
A.A. Masum Billah, Chatmohar Upazila Agriculture Officer, informed two varieties of Onion- Taherpuri variety and Kalas variety- are cultivated in the upazila. The climate being so far suitable, a bumper production of onion is likely to produce in the upazila. The root-onions are now bearing flowers and the farmers who have cultivated root-onion to produce onion-seeds are also expecting a bumper seed production.