Muhammad Torikul Islam, Panchagarh
Abundant seedlings dominate the local Haats at Tetulia upazila of Panchagarh district. Every year the local growers of onion seeds throng local Haats to sell their seeds and seedlings to other farmers in this season.
After visiting Bhajanpur market of the upazila recently it was seen that the sale of onion seedlings got momentum. This Haat (market) opens twice a week. On every Thursday and Sunday, people come here to buy and sale the seedlings as onion farming got more popularity among the farmers of the area in past years. Many local and imported varieties of onion seedlings are sold in this Haat.
Onion farmers of the area have changed their fate selling onion seedlings in the area. Farmers throng the Haat with several thousands of onion seedlings. Astonishingly, all the seedlings are sold within few hours.
Locals said that the onion farmers of the area were collecting onion seeds and seedlings from different local markets of the upazila. Farmers expressed their satisfaction as the price of seedlings is also very reasonable. The price is almost half of the price of last year.
However, the seedling sellers were very disappointed with the price as they could not sell the seedlings according to their expected price. Many of them claimed that they were facing loss due to the cheap price.
A bundle of 1,000 seedlings were being sold at Tk 70 to Tk 120. Last year, the same amount of seedlings was sold at Tk 150 to Tk 250, local farmers said.
A seedling seller from Noapara village under Buraburi union of the upazila, Moinul, said, “I earned around Tk 50,000 to Tk 60,000 cultivating onion seeds on 22 decimal land. This year, my earning has dropped to almost half due to the cheap price. I will struggle to manage the cost. Making profit would be a far cry
this year.”
Upazila Agriculture Officer M Jahangir Alam said, “The target of onion cultivation for winter season was set at 215 hectare land. The varieties of winter season are- BARI-1, BARI-4 and BARI-6. Farmers cultivate these onion varieties from October to November and from February to March.
However, the cultivation target may exceed this season. The farmers might get 16 tonnes of onion from each hectare land.”
