Meherpur farmers get success cultivating onion in muddy land

The farmers in Meherpur are seeing bumper production of onion, cultivating it in muddy lands changing its traditional farming method.

The farmers usually cultivate onions in dry land in winter. But the cultivators here farmed the onion in lands after making it muddy by irrigation just like they prepare the Aman paddy fields.

Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) sources said the changing process of onion cultivation brought bumper yield and shows hopes about its prospects among the farmers.

Farmers earn Tk50,000 on an average from onion cultivation on one bigha of land, they said, hoping to increase onion cultivation in this way in the future.

DAE officials also say self-sufficiency in onion production in the country is possible in future if cultivated all year.

Sources said the onions are cultivated in five hectares of land in the district in this new method. Farmers have planted different varieties of onions including Bari Onion-5 while the average yield is 15-16 tons per hectare, they said.

The onion is being sold at Tk40-45 per kg from the field, they added.

Farmer Feroz Ahmed Master of Sonapur village in Mujibnagar upazila of the district said onion is also being cultivated extensively in winter in Mujibnagar.

Some farmers are cultivating summer onion along with its winter varieties to get a good yield and fair price, he said.