Pabna Correspondent

Farmers in Pabna have protested by throwing onions on the road demanding fair price for their cut onions.

On Wednesday afternoon, they blocked the Pabna-Sujanagar highway in Sujanagar upazila, the largest onion producer in the district, and demanded a ban on onion imports.

The aggrieved farmers said that the cut onions they planted were destroyed due to natural disasters this season. As a result, they spent more than double the amount on buying onion tubers at a higher price in the second round. However, during the harvesting season, large quantities of onions were imported from India and other countries, which led to a sharp drop in prices in the onion market. As the wholesale cut onion price in Pabna has decreased by one to one and a half thousand taka per maund in a week, the farmers' production costs are not increasing. In addition, farmers have suffered losses due to low yields due to adverse weather conditions.

Talking to some traders in Sujanagar Bazar, it was learned that although cut onions were sold for 2,200 to 2,500 taka per maund last week, it has come down to 1,000 to 1,200 taka on Wednesday. This is making farmers frustrated. Due to the ample supply of foreign onions, wholesalers are not showing much interest in the newly grown onions.

Md. Rabbi, an onion farmer from Bahirchar village in Chartarapur, said that this year, onion tubers had to be bought at an unusual price. 8,000 to 9,000 taka per maund. Due to heavy rains, the fields have been damaged again, resulting in the cost of replanting them has doubled. In addition, due to the increase in the prices of all inputs including fertilizers and pesticides, our cost per bigha has reached about 200,000 taka. However, now we are not getting the price of onions due to onion import from abroad.

Onion farmer Firoz Pramanik said that although 50 maunds of onions are usually produced per bigha, this time due to adverse weather conditions we have got 30 to 35 maunds. After that, the price is also low. As a result, we are losing about 1 lakh taka per bigha. Far from making a profit from onion cultivated on loan, we are buried in a mountain of debt.
In this situation, the farmers are demanding an immediate stop to import from abroad and ensure a fair price for the cut onions. Otherwise, they have also warned of a strict agitation program.

Sujanagar Upazila Agriculture Officer Rafiul Alam said, the price has fallen due to the sudden increase in the supply of onions in the market. At this price, farmers are definitely losing money. We have advised the farmers to bring onions to the market little by little. The higher authorities have been informed about the situation. They will decide in consultation with the Ministry of Commerce on stopping the import.