Farmer's doom due to incentive onion seed
photo: Barta24
Farmers in Meherpur have suffered huge losses by cultivating onions under government supplied seed as incentives. After all the expenses of onion cultivation, only onion roots are found instead of onion ‘Guti’. It is bad news for the country in the year of onion shortage.
The answer to the question that the farmers planted for some unknown reason despite knowing that the seeds were out of season is not being answered. More than five hundred farmers of the district have to pay the loss.
According to the investigation, the agriculture office has provided seed and fertilizer assistance to 520 marginal farmers of Meherpur district in the current season for growing onion crops under government incentives. Each farmer cultivates onion in one bigha of land. BADC, a government seed producer, imported Nashik Red N53 onion seeds from India. Which is distributed among these marginal farmers free of cost by the Agriculture Office as an incentive.
According to sources from the Agriculture Office, 520 farmers in three upazilas of the district were given one kilogram of onion seeds and two types of fertilizers under the direction of the Department of Agricultural Extension.
The farmers said that some of the farmers sowed the seeds by trusting the government seeds and some planted onion seedlings by making seedlings. Even though onion seedlings are planted in the field in November, no onion pods have been found till date. Farmers are not getting any onion at the base of the cultivated onion trees in the fields. Farmers are spending the necessary fertilizers and pesticides waiting day after day in the hope that the pods will set. But if you pick up the plant, you can't see anything except the roots at the base. Many farmers have given up hope of onions without getting any response from the agriculture office.
Speaking to some agriculture officials who did not want to be named, Indian Nasik Red N53 onion seeds are mainly used for summer onion cultivation. In three upazilas of the district, the farmers got good yield and price of summer onion. Agriculture officials knew that if this summer variety is planted in winter, it will not produce onions. But under the pressure of the upper class, they distributed these seeds in winter. No one answered the question that the big owners have forced the farmers to grow this variety of seeds for some unknown reason.
Touhidul Islam, the affected farmer of Saharbati village, said that he has spent more than Tk. 30,000 on one bigha of onion cultivation. Even though the onion picking time has passed, the onion has not set. Now it will cost some more money to clear the field. The affected farmers are not getting any instructions despite repeatedly contacting the agriculture office.
The victimized onion farmers said that they planted onions in the hope of good yield from the government seeds. But what they didn't know is that summer onion seeds planted in winter will not set. As a result, these farmers have become helpless due to the loss of the entire plantation.
It can be seen that if the minimum financial loss of onion plantation is 30 thousand rupees per bigha, then the total cost of 520 bigha land of 520 farmers is more than Tk. 1 crore 56 lakh. In the year of the major onion crisis in the current season, on the one hand, the onion production has decreased, on the other hand, the marginal farmers have suffered a great financial loss. To compensate for the loss, the aggrieved farmers repeatedly complained to the agriculture office, but there is no assurance or remedy.
Why was it distributed among the farmers knowing that the seeds were out of season? Such questions were put to Meherpur District Agriculture Extension Department Deputy Director Vijay Krishna Halder. But he said without giving any answer, good yield of summer onion has been obtained with onion seeds of this variety.
