Agriculture officials on a drive to get farmers back to growing big onions
A programme was launched by the Agriculture Ministry and the Central Province Agriculture Department to promote big onion cultivation in the Matale District.
A house-to-house campaign was conducted last Thursday to educate farmers on this programme.
This comes against the backdrop of the shortage of local big onions in the market and the resulting increase in the retail price of onions to Rs 800.
The programme was aimed at getting farmers who had abandoned onion cultivation to once again resume it.
Over 250 officials of the Central Province Agriculture Department are involved in going from house to house.
The programme, which started with Seegiriya Rangirgama, will be extended to include Dambulla Sigiriya, Galewela, and Naulla.
However, the farmers’ pointed out that they stayed away from local big onion cultivation as their production costs exceeded their income as onions do not have fixed prices. They said the price of fertilisers and pesticides too made it difficult for them to engage in farming.
They added that the Agriculture Department should hold educational programmes after reducing cultivation costs. They indicated that they are willing to cultivate local onions if the agriculture department provides seeds, fertiliser, and weedicides for a fair price and has a fixed price of Rs 200 per kilo of onions.
Agriculture Dept. Additional Director General Priyankara Herath said that the government had allocated Rs. 150 million to promote big onion cultivation as well as to produce seeds.
The Central Province Agriculture Director, Jayalath Bandara, assured the farmers that they would provide facilities and technology for them.