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Noor Ahmed Marri, a small onion producer, has given up onion cultivation for the past few years. He no longer finds onion sowing viable due to production losses and has replaced his onion acreage with banana cultivation in Sindh’s Tandojam area. While he owns 25 acres of land, his family members collectively used to grow onions on over 100 acres. This is no longer the case, as they too have switched to bananas.
Onion growers like Mr Marri, who had been producing the vegetable religiously, have now lost interest altogether in its cultivation. They have increasingly felt discouraged by economic and production losses, largely driven by disease. Syed Nadeem Shah, a seasoned onion grower, shares a similar account of avoiding onion cultivation. They were unable to salvage their crop despite applying different methods in back-to-back years.
This calls into question the role and performance of agricultural research bodies. Hyderabad district has an onion-specific research body, but its performance has been a guessing game.
In Nasirabad, Balochistan, Saleem Bahrani felt comfortable with onion sowing and was getting reasonable returns. Although he noticed a decline in yields, which he attributed to weather conditions, he has no plans to discontinue sowing onions.
