Cold Storage for Anions

 Written by: Samira Haleemzai

Onions are growing in most parts of Afghanistan and have a good harvest, but farmers cannot make a good profit from selling them because onions could be rotten in cold weather. AEPO’s writer/producer has talked to some peasants about this issue.

Shirin Aqa, a peasant, a resident of Qarabagh district, Kabul province says, “I grew onion in my land. Last year I harvested 800 kilograms onions. I stored them in the basement of my house and as the basement had no fresh air, all the onions got rotten and I faced about 50 thousand Afghanis loss.”

Muhammad Khalid Mangal, a resident of Chaharasiab district, Kabul province says,

“I had been keeping onions in sacks and all the onions had been rotten after sometimes. Last year we filled about 70 bags from onions and each bag had 98 kilograms onion and all onions got rotted and we faced a big loss. We don’t have sea or stream water for irrigation. We used a diesel generator for watering the onion fields but unfortunately, we got no benefit from our harvest.”

What do people think about the causes of rotting onions?

Muhammad Khalid Mangal says, “When we store onion in a damp room where there is no fresh air and sun, the onions get rotten soon and the second cause of rotting onions is keeping onions in hot weather. If the room for keeping onion is very hot, the onion might be rotten.”

Muhammad Saleem, a resident of Paghman district, Kabul province says, “If you keep more onions in a small room or keep them in plastic bags, they would be rotten due to the lack of fresh air. Rotten onions among onions might cause to spoil the remained onions too.”

Allah Gul, a resident of Khogyani district, Nangarhar province says, “If peasants stop watering onions one month before the harvest, the onions would be dried enough and might not be rotten easily.”

How do people make cold storage for keeping anions?

Alhaj Abdul Rahim, a resident of Kabul province talks about making cold storage for anion, “We need burnt clay bricks; girders, cement, door, windows and one-inch plastic to build cold storage for onions.

The cold storage should be built in a high place so that the wind should flow in it easily. The storage should be near to the road to carry the harvest easily to the vehicle. The storage should be 8 meters long and 3.5 meters wide. We should dig the foundation about two meters deep in the ground and we use a two-meter wall from stones. We should use the girders in the ceiling and burnt clay bricks in the wall of the storage.

The ground of the storage should also be concreted to prevent mice. We should use exhaust fans for refreshing the storage air. We should keep the anion sacks in a row and away from each other.”