Summer Onion Cultivation: The Key to Meeting the Country’s Demand

According to the Department of Agriculture, Bangladesh faces an onion shortage of several hundred thousand tons every year. To address this gap, the country spends at least a thousand crore BDT annually on onion imports. This creates an opportunity for market syndicates, further burdening consumers.

In this context, cultivating summer onion varieties is essential to fully meet the nation’s demand. Agricultural scientists believe that if summer onion cultivation expands, the need for imports can be eliminated, ensuring self-reliance in this essential spice.

Due to the cultivation of other cash crops like potatoes during the Rabi (winter) season, it is challenging to increase onion production in that period. As a result, summer onion has become the only viable alternative. Experts have highlighted that summer onion varieties can be cultivated year-round.

Research on Summer Onion

Researchers at the Spice Research Center in Shibganj, Bogura, have been working on summer onion cultivation for years. They believe that Bangladesh can achieve self-sufficiency in summer onion production within the next five years, enabling the country to meet domestic demand and even export surplus onions. To achieve this, they are training farmers on cultivating high-quality bulbs and advanced farming techniques.

The Spice Research Center states that despite regular onion production in the winter season, a significant shortfall persists every year. For instance, in the 2020-21 fiscal year, onions were cultivated on 252,000 hectares of land, yielding 3.362 million tons. However, with a demand of 3.6 million tons, a shortfall of 238,000 tons required imports.

In 2022-23, the demand increased to 4 million tons, while domestic production was limited to only 2.6 million tons. Approximately 700,000 tons were imported, but a gap of 650,000 tons still remained. Additionally, around 25% of the total onion supply is lost during storage, drying, and transportation. This results in an annual import expenditure of 500-1,000 crore BDT.

Development of Summer Onion Varieties

To address this challenge, agricultural researchers initiated the development of summer onion varieties in 2010-11. This led to the introduction of three summer onion varieties: BARI Onion-2, BARI Onion-3, and BARI Onion-5. Of these, BARI-5 has shown the best results, offering higher yields and better resistance to pests and diseases. Full-scale work with farmers on these varieties began in 2015.

Benefits of Summer Onion Cultivation

Farmers like Kutubuddin from Shibganj, Bogura, have been cultivating summer onions for the past four years. He says that onions planted in August-September can meet market demand during a time of low supply, making the crop highly profitable. The summer onion variety matures in 80-85 days, producing bulbs that weigh around 100 grams each. Although its red colour sometimes causes confusion with Indian onions, it remains a lucrative option for off-season farming.

Challenges and Research Innovations

While summer onion yields are 2-2.5 times higher than winter onions, their storage capacity is lower, lasting only about 2.5 months. This storage limitation poses challenges for widespread adoption and seed production.

To address these issues, researchers have introduced two solutions:

1. Bulblet Cultivation: Small onion bulbs are planted densely, producing onions with lower water content, making them easier to store.
2. Cocopeat Method: Using coconut husk powder as a growing medium, researchers have achieved exceptional results in onion cultivation.

Expansion of Summer Onion Cultivation

Currently, summer onion cultivation has spread to 26 districts, including Rajshahi, Pabna, Faridpur, Kushtia, Natore, and Chapainawabganj. Demonstration plots have been set up in 20 locations, each covering 15 decimals of land. Dr. Nur Alam Chowdhury, a senior official at the Spice Research Center, stated that Rajshahi alone has 12,000 hectares under summer onion cultivation. Efforts are ongoing to expand seed production and motivate farmers to adopt this crop.

Future Prospects

Dr. Chowdhury highlighted the potential of utilizing homestead lands for onion cultivation. With around 2.5 crore homesteads in Bangladesh, even one decimal of land per household could produce an additional 3 lakh tons of onions, significantly reducing the national deficit.

Researchers are optimistic that by increasing production and reducing reliance on imports, Bangladesh can become self-sufficient in onion production within the next five years.

The official from the Spice Research Center further stated that there are 25 million households in the country. If summer onions are cultivated on just 1 decimal of land in 10 million of these households, it could produce at least 300,000 tons. This would easily bridge the national production shortfall. Our primary goal is to increase production and reduce dependence on imports.