Lal Teer develops hybrid onion seed
Lal Teer Seed Ltd has developed a hybrid onion seed with potential to boost production, cut import reliance drastically and meet local consumption, said the company yesterday.
The seed seller said it is the first firm to have developed a hybrid onion seed in Bangladesh and the seed will cater to the Tk 100 crore annual market for the seed of the popular vegetable.
“This is a breakthrough,” Mahbub Anam, managing director of Lal Teer Seed, told The Daily Star.
“This is the result of a 10-year-long research. We are going to release the seed in the market this year.”
One of the largest seed companies in Bangladesh, Lal Teer Seed markets 131 varieties of 33 vegetable crops in the country. Of them, 55 are hybrids and the rest are open pollinated.
Bangladesh produced 19 lakh tonnes of onion on 4.59 lakh acres of land in 2016-17 and imported 15 lakh tonnes of the tuber, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
The state-run agency is yet to release its production estimate for the crop for 2017-18, but data showed 14.14 lakh tonnes of the spice were imported in the same fiscal year.
Anam said the hybrid seed has three times higher yield than those of local varieties, which produce 4 tonnes of onion per acre.
If the new variety is grown on one-third of the area now set aside for onion cultivation, the total annual production would be more than 27 lakh tonnes, the current domestic consumption, said Lal Teer.
Anam said Bangladesh requires about 1,300 tonnes of onion seed per year. Of them, about 300 tonnes are managed through farmer-to-farmer exchange while seed firms supply 100 tonnes.
The remaining seed comes from India, mostly through unofficial channels, he said.
“There is a huge prospect as the new variety is suitable for cultivating locally,” said Anam, adding that farmers will make a handsome profit if they use the hybrid seed in place of local varieties.
Each tuber will weigh 50-60 grammes and could be preserved throughout the year, according to the company.
Anam said Lal Teer has already registered the seed with the agriculture ministry. “We will apply for the patent soon,” he said.
State-run Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute has developed five onion varieties and they are open pollinated, according to its scientists.
