A look at the place of onion production in East Azerbaijan
Last year, 2.3 million tons of onions were produced in the country and its surplus was exported. Currently, 61,500 hectares of the country are under onion cultivation. In 2012, 157 thousand tons of domestically produced onions were exported to the countries of the region, which shows an increase of about 40% compared to 2011.
The highest area of onion cultivation belongs to East Azerbaijan, which has 13% of production of this product, followed by Isfahan, Fars and Sistan and Baluchestan provinces have the highest production of this product.
About two million tons of onions are used annually for fresh consumption, and 35% (about 700,000 tons) of which must be planned to be collected and to prevent losses to the farmer.
Masoud Mohammadian, head of the East Azerbaijan Agricultural Jihad Organization, said: Guaranteed purchasing, export formation and product warehousing are some of the solutions that have not been very responsive so far and have caused losses to farmers and consumers.
He added: Currently, each kilogram of onion is bought from farmers at a farm price of 400 Tomans.
The head of the East Azerbaijan Agricultural Jihad Organization continued: Organizing the seeds of some products such as onions is carried out according to the credits obtained in the province.
Mohammadian recounted another problem of vegetables and summer in the province: the small size of agricultural plots as another problem has caused a decrease in the degree of mechanization in the province.
He reminded: implementation of mechanized planting, holding and harvesting has a great role in reducing production costs.
The head of the East Azerbaijan Agricultural Jihad Organization spoke about the role of new technologies in onion processing and added: Regarding onion processing, we should look for new technologies in the country so that by processing and packaging this product we can make optimal use of domestic onion production and farmers have more motivation in production. Have this product.
The average yield per hectare in the province is 7.8 tons higher than the national average, Ayub Iranifam, deputy director of the East Azerbaijan Jihad Agricultural Organization.
He continued: Considering that the planting, holding and onion harvesting operations are done manually, this crop has a major share in terms of seasonal employment, so that for each hectare from planting to harvest, about 4 people a day is needed.
The Deputy Minister of Crop Production Improvement of the East Azerbaijan Jihad Agricultural Organization stated: The area under onion cultivation in the province has decreased compared to the previous crop year.
Explaining the reason for the decrease in onion cultivation in East Azerbaijan, Iranfam added: This has been done based on reforming the cultivation pattern, saving water consumption and realizing the rights of producers and preventing the loss of capital in the agricultural sector.
He reminded the amount of water consumed per hectare for onion cultivation: more than 15,000 square meters of water per hectare is consumed for this product.
The Deputy Minister of Crop Production Improvement of the East Azerbaijan Jihad Agricultural Organization considered the use of sand to be effective in preventing onion emergence and said: Experts consider the use of more than 40 tons of sand per hectare to be beneficial for farmers for optimal onion emergence.
Saeed Soleimani, the director of agriculture of the East Azerbaijan Jihad Agricultural Organization, also stated: Onion farmers in East Azerbaijan succeeded in producing 13% of onions in the country by producing 254,000 tons of onions.
He said that 11% of the area under onion cultivation in the country, ie 5900 hectares, has been allocated to onion cultivation in East Azerbaijan, adding: The average yield of onions in the province is about 42 tons per hectare.
The director of agriculture of East Azerbaijan Jihad Agricultural Organization introduced the top cities in onion production and said: Bonab, Ajabshir, Malekan and Shabestar cities with 1800, 1200, 800 and 650 hectares have the most onions in the province, respectively.
Soleimani said: 90 thousand, 55 thousand, 35 thousand and 25 thousand tons are produced in these cities, respectively.
He added: 30% of onion production is provincial and 70% is transferred to other provinces.
The director of agriculture of the East Azerbaijan Jihad Agricultural Organization continued: Support for farmers in different stages of planting, holding and harvesting is planned only for this amount of land.
Soleimani announced the development of efficient and up-to-date methods in onion cultivation in the province and said: the development of direct cultivation of onion seeds without the use of sand in the agricultural lands of Bonab, Ajabshir and Shabestar counties as well as mechanized onion cultivation using a four-row linear In order to make optimal use of production resources, this management tries to institutionalize it in the agricultural sector of the province by transferring the necessary production information by experts and to continue its movement towards the realization of sustainable development in the sector.
According to the report, the establishment of processing plants, packaging and sorting of onions, and by trying to make it possible to increase the practical value of the product, in addition to improving the income of consumers, planning for how to sell and store it becomes easier.