Onion farmers undeterred by heavy losses

BAYAMBANG, Pangasinan – Despite heavy losses incurred due to onion diseases called pinkroot and bulb rot that affected their produce, onion farmers are not losing hope and won’t give up planting their precious crop.

Mayor Leocadio de Vera Jr. told The STAR that onions have been the lifeblood of more than 1,000 onion farmers who have made this town as the top onion producer in Pangasinan and even in Region 1.

He said onion farmers in about 650 hectares located in more than 30 barangays here plant mostly the red creole variety. They are trying to recoup their losses after their October and November planting suffered a big setback.

"Masanting su ani ed samay kumadwan tanem, abebay presyo labat (They had good harvest during the second planting but price was low)," De Vera said.

Delfin Bravo, municipal agriculturist here, said they have designed a participatory technology demonstration to be held in October to discover and address the root causes of the disease afflicting the farmers’ produce.

He said this problem was first experienced in 1997 and peaked in 2000. But the onion industry suffered a big blow, Bravo said, due to smuggling of onions from other countries that flooded the local markets in 2003 and 2004 when prices plunged to as low as P5 per kilogram. Today, onions are sold at P11 per kilogram. – Eva Visperas