Delwar Kabir, Jhenaidah:

The farmers of Jhenaidah have started witnessing ray of hope to preserve their onions at a minimum cost by using fans locally known as “Airflow”.

Further, the onion, garlic or similar spicy crops might be preserved without rotten and heavy reduction of the weight even after a year. The capable farmers have started preserving those products with a competitive mood.

Majedul Haque, 45, a farmer as well as a trader at Shailkupa upazila town said, he has preserved 600 maunds of onion in his two platforms where he had set two electricity-run machines. Each platform has a capacity of storing 300 maunds of the crop.

According to Majedul Haque, they face severe crisis of quality onion seeds during preparing seed beds as most of the seed dealers and sellers charge two to three times price of the onion seeds as there is no monitoring system in the market.

He said, the new method Airflow will help reduce the rotten and loss in weight. The crops preserved in the method remain fresh, attractive and unchanged of colour.

Two other traders Arup Kumar Saha and Khabir Hossain of the market expressed the same opinion about spicy crop preservation.

While contacted, Mohammad Arifuzzaman, Shailakupa upazila agriculture officer said the “Airflow Method” has opened a new era for the farmers and traders. This technique helps to protect the union from rotting. The method will ensure better prices for the farmers as well as the consumers will be able to consume fresh crops around the year.