He said these things today as the chief guest at the national workshop on 'Adaptation project for onion preservation at farmer level based on partnership to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change in onion producing areas of Bangladesh' held at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) auditorium in Farmgate, the capital.

The workshop was chaired by the Director General of the Department of Agricultural Extension, Md. Abdur Rahim, and the special guest was Agriculture Secretary Dr. Md. Rafiqul I Mohamed. The keynote paper was presented by Project Director Dr. Md. Mahfuzur Rahman.

The minister said that although the production of onions in the country is higher than the demand, a huge amount of onions have to be imported every year due to lack of adequate storage facilities. By increasing the storage system, onion imports will be reduced to zero and by increasing production, onions will be exported in the future.

The minister said, 'Ten million of our people live abroad. They want to eat local onions. Onions produced in other countries of the world are almost like vegetables. Real onions refer to our local onions.'

The Agriculture Minister said, 'Although the production of onions in the country is higher than the demand, we have to import due to lack of storage. So we have decided to increase the storage capacity of onions. Through this, onion imports will be reduced to zero. At the same time, by increasing production, onions will be exported in the future.'

It is to be noted that the onion preservation project is being implemented under the Department of Agricultural Extension under the Ministry of Agriculture. The project started in May 2025 and will continue until April 2027. The total cost of the project is estimated at Tk 11 crore 77 lakh 50 thousand. The project is being funded by the Climate Change Trust Fund. The project is being implemented in 107 upazilas of 16 districts including Pabna, Faridpur, Rajbari, Rajshahi, Kushtia, Magura, Jhenaidah, Manikganj, Natore, Naogaon, Meherpur, Chapainawabganj, Madaripur, Shariatpur, Rangpur and Bogura.

Under the project, 3,700 environment-friendly air flow machines are being installed to prevent post-harvest rot of onions. Through this, it will be possible to save a huge amount of onions from rotting every year and reduce the country's import costs. Under the project, 3,900 farmers are being given technical training at the farmer level.