By Ifham Nizam

Plans are afoot to introduce a new technology package to farmers to increase the yield of big onion cultivation by the Mahailluppallama Field Crops Research Institute, a senior official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industries said.

He said under the proposed package cultivation of a hectare big onions will cost Rs. 2.5 million and for the necessary financial allocation, the Department of Agriculture has allocated Rs.160 million for the year 2024.

Director General of Agriculture Malathi Parasuraman said that part of the financial allocation given to the Department of Agriculture for the production of seeds has been allocated for this new package.

A discussion was held on Thursday in the ministry with Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Mahinda Amaraweera presidinge and the Minister was asked about the proposed programme to be implemented next year to expand the cultivation of big onions in Sri Lanka.

The annual requirement of big onions is 300,000 tonnes. But by now the big onion cultivation has declined. Due to this situation, steps have been taken to introduce a new high-tech cultivation package to re-popularize big onion cultivation in the country.

The official said that under the new scheme, the Department of Agriculture provides advanced big onion seeds, drip irrigation technology and the technical knowledge required to cultivate in a way that can achieve higher yields.

At present, the yield obtained from one hectare of big onion cultivation is 20 tonnes and with this high technology package, the yield can be doubled to 40 tonnes.

This new high technology cultivation package is to be introduced in 650 hectares from 2024 to 2026. Also, in the year 2024, arrangements have been made to increase the amount of land where big onions are cultivated to 4000 hectares, and the expected yield is 80,000 tonnes.

Amaraweera said that Sri Lanka cannot be self-sufficient with big onions. The reason is that there is a limited amount of suitable land that can be used to grow big onions. But he also instructed officials and crop leaders to give priority to increasing local onion output in order to maintain the price of big onions within 200 rupees per kilo in 2024 by obtaining the maximum yield from cultivable land.The Secretary of the Ministry Janaka Dharmakirthi and others participated in this discussion.