Onion cultivation starts in Nilphamari with 13,392 tonnes of output target

NILPHAMARI, Feb 14: Onion cultivation has started in all the six upazilas of the district. Farmers are now busy in tillage and preparing the land for transplantation of the seedlings of onion there in the prepared land.

Almost 80 per cent of the onion farmers purchase seedling of onion from the markets for transplantation. Only very few farmers grow seedlings themselves in their own land to be transplanted as its technology is complex, costly and time consuming.

Sources said farmers are purchasing 1000 saplings at a price of Tk 100 in the markets. Cow dung, chemical fertilizer such as urea, phosphate, potassium etc are being used in cultivating the spice crop. It needs two times irrigation and weeding to get the desired production.

Cultivation of onion is profitable as 100 maunds of onion may be produced in 30 decimal of land and its market price is also very high. At present retail price of onion is Tk 60 in the local markets.

Habibur Rahman, a farmer of Itakhola union of Sadar upazila, said he has already completed transplantation of onion seedling in 30 decimals of land where his total cost of cultivation would be Tk 20,000 or so. He said he may get 80 maunds of onion which he would be able to sale at a total price of around Tk 0.1 million if the price remain high.

DAE sources said this year target of onion cultivation in the district is in 1674 hectares of land and production target is 13,392 tonnes at an average production of eight tonnes per hectare.

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