When ban turns boon for Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s focus on boosting local onion production has opened up a path to self-suffi ciency, just a year aft er In-dia’s export ban rattled the market and sent the prices skyrocketing here.The country produced 33.62 lakh tonnes of onion in 2020-21 fi scal year against the domestic demand of around 24 lakh tonnes, Department of Agri-culture Extension (DAE) Director (Crop Wing) Khandakar Abdul Owahed told The Business Post.DAE has provided training to farm-ers and encouraged them to sow high-yield seeds and brought more land under onion cultivation as part of the government’s move to achieve self-suf-fi ciency.“Thanks to these initiatives and suit-able weather condition, Bangladeshrecorded its highest-ever production this year,” Owahed said, crediting standard management, training, qual-ity seeds and more acreages for high yield. Bangladesh has traditionally been dependent on importing onion from India because of its proximity and simi-larity in variety.Prices of the root vegetable, a sta-ple of subcontinental cuisine, went through the roof in the country in 2019 aft er an impromptu export ban by India. The high prices forced people to pay as much as Tk 260 a kilogram at times. This put huge pressure onthe government to devise ways to meet the domestic demand with local pro-duction.Onion demand-supply matchedDAE data showed that farmers produced 23,30,500 tonnes of onion in FY2018-19. During this period, 10,07,218 tonnes were imported, the highest so far. In that year, people consumed 33.38 lakh tonnes of onion, the highest con-sumption by Bangladeshis in a single year.The second-highest onion-consum-ing year was FY2017-18 when the nation consumed 31,93,103 tonnes, of which, 23,30,000 tonnes were locally produced and 8,63,103 tonnes were imported.But in FY2020-21, farmers produced an all-time high 33,62,000 tonnes. Despite the huge production, some 4,10,305 tonnes of onion have been im-ported till March 31. Aft er a two-month pause, the government resumed issu-ing “import permit” - a prerequisite for onion import - in June. “Our annual demand is around 24 lakh tonnes and the production is around 33 lakh tonnes. We need to import onion since 25-30 per cent onion could always go to waste,” said AHM Shafi quzzaman, additional secretary, Import & Internal Trade Wing, Ministry of Commerce.

This year, maximum 7,00,000 tonnes can be imported, of which the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh will import 60,000 tonnes, he added. “With our current yield, we are yet to become self-suffi cient to meet the demands. I am confi dent that we will be self-suffi cient with domestic produc-tion,” Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque told The Business Post.Researchers are working relentless-ly to develop a variety to be cultivated in summer. “If it succeeds, we will be self-suffi cient,” he said.Storage facility Former BIDS director Dr Asaduzzaman said that if farmers supply onion to the market when it is needed, then local production can meet domestic demand. “Supply glut pushes down the pric-es. Farmers can store onion for a long time in dry storages. Wastage depends on how wet or dry the storage house is,” he said. Asaduzzaman said that import is needed until Eid-ul Adha when the de-mand shoots up. A Faridpur farmer Billal Mia, who stored 650 maunds (one maund= 37.32kg) of onion, said wastage de-pends on how one stores it. “I have sold 200 maunds from my storage. It seems that 5 per cent becomes wastage. It can be stored throughout the year if the storage facility is sound,” he said.Catalysts for higher productionAs the prices of onion were skyrocket-ing in 2019, more farmers took up onion cultivation to make more profi t. The rise in per hectare yield is the major reason behind the production boost.In FY2020-21, the root vegetable was cultivated on 2,53,000 hectares, the highest-ever in Bangladesh, which is 15,000 hectares more than the previous year. Per hectare yield reached 13.28 tonnes while the previous highest was 11.21 tonnes in FY2018-19.“BARI Piaz-1, BARI Piaz-2, BARI Piaz-3 are our invented hybrid varieties. An average production of these varieties is around 15-16 tonnes per hectare. In some cases, we got 24 tonnes per hec-tare,” said Md Shahiduzzaman, chief scientifi c offi cer of Bangladesh Agricul-tural Research Institute (BARI).“We trained farmers in 192 upazilas and asked them to use these varieties. Many used them and some privately im-ported varieties. The main focus was to raise per hectare production,” he added. Shahiduzzaman said the weather was favourable. There was no rain or natural hazard during harvest period. The government distributed more than Tk 12 crore among 25,000 farmers for seeds and fertiliser, said DAE offi cials. Why import and price hike despite huge production?According to the importers, whole-salers and farmers, harvesting has been completed in mid-May. Lakhs of tonnes of onion is in storages owned by farm-ers and traders. They release onion into the market at a slow pace in the hopes of getting higher prices.For this reason, wholesalers and selling agents are not getting enough supply to meet the daily demand. This has forced them to look for alterna-tive supply source at comparatively lower prices. Importers at this stage cajoled the government into issuing import permits saying that it will help keep the supply adequate and the pric-es stable.“There is no alternative to import to keep the prices stable and aff ordable,” said Md Abu Bakar Siddikue, manager of Hafi z Corporation, a leading onion importer.Retailers and general consumers prefer onions at cheaper prices.“People want cheap onion. Imported onion is always cheaper than the local variety. Selling the local variety won’t bring high profi ts. So, we prefer import-ed onion,” Karwanbazar retailer Md Mi-lon Hossain said.At the time of the interview, he said that they were selling imported onion at Tk 40 a kg aft er buying it at Tk 32 per kg from the wholesalers. But the prices fl uctuate all the time depending on the supply and demand.“A kg of local variety will cost us Tk 42 a kg and we need to sell it at Tk 50 to make profi t,” he said. Both wholesalers and importers claim that there is an urgent need for import to keep the prices stable.“Big farmers and traders will store on-ion that will cause a price hike which we have seen in 2019,” said Abdus Salaam, a middleman, who buys onion from im-porters in the bordering areas and sells to wholesaler in Dhaka’s Shyambazar, the largest onion market in the capital.When onion prices shot up to Tk 250 in 2019, farmers assumed that the price will go up further and did not bring their produce to market.“Once imported onion hit the mar-ket, farmers were forced to sell their produce at as low as Tk 10 a kg. So, import is a must to keep the prices sta-ble,” said Jamil Munshi, proprietor of Mohammadia Traders, a wholesaler at Shyambazar. Import a technique to become self-sufficient!The DAE considers import as a tool to achieve self-suffi ciency. DAE Director Owahed said, “We is-sue the import permit. In October-No-vember, some extra onion may be need-ed to meet the rising demand. But India will stop export very soon. So, before India bans export, we need to store some onion. “During the export ban, our farm-ers will sell from their stock and will presumably get fair prices which will encourage them to produce more onion next year. Sustainable self-suffi ciency can be achieved this way.”How to sustain the growth?Increased use of hybrid seeds and en-suring farmers’ profi t are the key to sustained growth. It is necessary to for-mulate an ethical market mechanism, experts say.Md Shahiduzzaman, chief scientifi c offi cer of BARI, said, “The use of high-yield seeds is instrumental in sustain-ing the growth. The government should focus on it, or else, production may fall in the coming years.”It appears to be a huge production but at the end of the day farmers strug-gle to survive as the production cost is very high, noted Billal Mia, the farmer from Faridpur.“Brokers want to buy onion for Tk 38 a kg from the storage. We want to sell it at Tk 50 a kg to make some profi t,” he said. Producing a kg of onion costs over Tk 25. If farmers can’t make profi t, they will lose interest in cultivation, he said. Sabuj Kazi, another farmer from Faridpur, who harvested 110 maunds of onion this season, concurred. “Farmers are holding on to onions. They are not interested to sell at the cur-rent prices,” he said. “We are dependent on our produce to run our families. We can’t survive if we don’t make profi t. The government must ban onion import be-cause there’s no scarcity in the countr