Guwahati, Dec 12 (IANS): After becoming self-sufficient in rice production, Assam now plans to achieve self-sufficiency in onion production, state Agriculture Minister Nilamoni Sen Deka said here Friday.

Deka said the agricultural department has initiated projects for production of onions in about 10,000 hectares of land this year. "With the new developments, we hope that we would be able to attain self-sufficiency in onion production in next two years' time."

The annual requirement of onions in the state is about 4.5 lakh tonnes, the minister said, adding that the state last year cultivated onions on about 5,000 hectares of land and produced about 50 percent of the state's requirement.

"We have been experimenting with the onion production since last year. Last year, we have produced about 12 to 13 tonnes of onion from per hectare. The production is likely to go up this time as we have taken so many interventions to help the farmers," he said.

"We have also sent our departmental officials and engineers to Nashik to get training on preservation of onions. We are also going to build special storages for the onions," he said.

Assam has recorded significant achievement in production of rice since 2011.

While the state's rice production was only 39.98 lakh tonnes in 2000-01, it reached 50.33 lakh tonnes in 2011-12 and 51.93 lakh tonnes in 2013-14.

The projected rice production in Assam for the year 2014-15 is 54.40 lakh tonnes. Assam has now marketable surplus of rice to the tune of 6 lakh tonnes a year.

The central government selected Assam for the Krishi Karman Award for the year 2013-14 as the best performing state in pulses production.

This is for the third time that the state has been selected for the award for production of pulses. While the pulses yield in the state was 70,000 lakh tonnes in 2010-11, it reached 104 lakh tonnes in 2013-14 financial year. A tonne is equal to 1,000 kg.