The Department of Agriculture says that plans are currently underway to produce 50% of Sri Lanka's annual big onion requirement domestically. Accordingly, the department says that it expects to meet 50% of the country's annual requirement from the upcoming Yala season harvest.
The annual consumption of big onions in the country is about 320,000 metric tons. The highest big onion production in history was in 2014, and the amount of big onions obtained from 6,000 hectares in that year was 100,000 metric tons.
Factors such as the increase in production costs and the sale of cheap imported big onions in the local market have caused farmers to abandon big onion cultivation. Taking this situation into consideration, the Department of Agriculture says that a program is underway to meet 50% of the country's large salt requirement locally by minimizing production costs and introducing other incentives.