All-season HYV onion evolved

Kharif onion on a demonstration plot (left) at the Regional Spices Research Centre in Magura and onion taken from the field (right). PHOTO: STAR

Named 'Kharif onion', it can be produced thrice a year.

Experimental yield of the Kharif onion is 12 to 14 tonnes per hectare during summer against 4.10 tonnes during Rabi season on the same land, RSRC officials said.

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BARC has recommended the variety for cultivation and suggested the authorities concerned to popularise its cultivation through demonstration plots and training of farmers, the officials said.

A training programme for Block Supervisors under the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and farmers will be launched this year, they said.

The researchers achieved the success after several years' experimental cultivation in cooperation with One Farm Research Division (OFRD) of BARI (Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute).

The RSRC has already supplied one lakh 20 thousand seedling of Kharif onion to farmers in Magura, Pabna and Jessore through OFRD.

Scientific Officer Alauddin Khan told this correspondent that production cost of Kharif onion is lesser as it taken only three and a half months from plantation to harvest while the Rabi onion takes five and half months.

The variety is widely cultivated in India, Turkey, Sri Lanka and other countries but farmers in Bangladeshi are not aware of it, he said.

"We are trying to popularise the variety among farmers through OFRD under BARI." Alauddin Khan said he hopes it will be cultivated widely by 2006.

Bangladesh's annual demand for onion is about five 5 lakh tonnes while the domestic production is below two lakh tonnes, according to RSRC sources.