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Availability of locally produced onions in West Bengal is set to improve starting this year.
The State Government is planning to supply seeds at subsidised rates to farmers to grow onions in the kharif season (June-end October).
The State currently produces onions only during the rabi season (mid November to April).
According to Pijush Kanti Pramanick, Director of State Horticulture Department, the improvement in availability of locally produced onions will also bring down prices.
West Bengal produces nearly 3.04 lakh tonnes onions during the rabi season. The estimated demand is pegged at around 3.33 lakh tonnes. The shortfall of close to 29,000 tonnes is currently met through imports from Maharashtra and Karnataka.
“Once we start producing the kharif onions, our overall production will improve and in the next three-to-four years, we will turn self-sufficient to meet our demand,” Pramanick told Business Line . The State Government has already identified some farmers in the districts of Bankura, Purulia, West Midnapore, Birbhum, Murshidabad, Nadia, North 24 Parganas and Hughli for growing onions. “We plan to bring close to 600 hectares of land under onion cultivation during this kharif season. Nearly 15-17 tonnes of onion can be produced on a hectare,” he said. The rabi onions start coming into the market around February-March and is available till end of August.
Once the stock of locally produced rabi onions gets deplete, post-August, onions from other States start flooding the local markets, thereby, pushing up prices, he pointed out.
Pilot Project
The State Horticulture Department in association with the National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF) had launched a pilot project about two years back to look into the possibility of cultivation of kharif onions.
“We looked at the adaptability of onions grown in Nashik and other parts of Maharashtra, in West Bengal. The pilot project was successful, so we decided to go on a massive drive to grow onions during kharif season,” he said. The State Government would be procuring the seeds developed by NHRDF Nashik, which are most suitable for Bengal, and supply it to the farmers at subsidised rates, he said.
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