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The Significance of Onion Tissue Culture in Bangladesh

Tissue culture, a method of biological research in which fragments of small pieces or tissues from a plant are transferred to an artificial environment in which they can continue to survive and function. It is widely used to produce clones of a plant in a method known as micropropagation.

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the family Amaryllidaceae. Onion is an herbaceous biennial plant grown for its edible bulb. The onion is likely native to southwestern Asia but is now grown throughout the world, including Bangladesh. Onion is one of the major spices in Bangladesh. It ranks first in production among the spice crops and is used as salad while its stalk becomes green. A reputed daily reported on 16th July 2021 that, Bangladesh produced 33.62 Lac mt of onion in 2020-21 fiscal year against domestic demand of round 24 Lac mt as per statistics of Department of Agricultural Extension Department (DAE). Bangladesh has shortage of onion of about 10 Lac mt per year. The average yield of onion in Bangladesh is far below 11 t ha-1 (BBS, 2015) as compared to the world average of 19.32 t ha-1.

Onion is mainly produced in the winter season, and cultivation in summer season has some constrains of adverse weather and lack of proper cultural practices. Onion micropropagation is usually applied in breeding programs, maintenance, and multiplication of cytoplasmic-male sterile lines for hybrid production, germplasm conservation, and as a tool for the application of other biotechnologies. This technique ensures genetic stability, high propagation rate, and maintains donor plant of explants with an advantage over other means of in vitro regeneration. With a view, to meeting up the increasing demand of onion it is possible to produce a vast number of bulblets from high yield exotic varieties through micropropagation.

Mohsina Afreen
Associate Scientist
ASRBC.