Bangladesh is trying to cope with the soaring onion prices because of the Indian export ban earlier this month. However, vegetables farmer Shahinur Rahman was seeing a bumper production of a new variety of local onion he planted two months ago. Shahinur, from Mohadebpur village in the Ishwardi district, is thankful that the Bogura Spices Research Center has given him the opportunity to participate in test cultivation of BARI-5 variety of onion on his land.
"I used to cultivate vegetables in my field. Recently, I came to know that this new variety of onion is ready in 90 to 100 days. I was interested and so made seed beds in the middle of June and planted seedlings in the last week of July. While the country is worried about the rising price of onions, my fields are full of onions," Shahinur said last week.
The Spices Research Center, a wing of the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), is now at the final stage of research on BARI-5 onion cultivation. The BARI-5 is expected to be ready for commercial cultivation next year onwards, which will lead to production of onion in the months of September and October -- usually around the time of the year when onion import crises and price hikes hit the country
