Off Season Onion production in Nepal

OFF-SEASON ONION PRODUCTION IN NEPAL

Abstract

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is important crop having highly nutritive value consumed as a spice and salad in every household. The production and productivity of onion in the country is very low as compare to overall production of world. Generally onion is grown in October- November and harvest in May- April in our country. Cultivation in June-July and harvesting in November to December is off-season. The production of onion in the country could not fulfill the demand of market even in on-season. The demand is much higher in off-season of the country and up to 80% onion should import from India and other country. So, appropriate technology is required for the production of onion in country. Off-season onion production is required to meet the high demand in lean season. Among the different varieties available in Nepal Agrifound Dark Red is seems good. In Nepal planting of onion for off-season is done by using sets which 2 cm in diameter or thumbnail size. Seedling can also used as a planting material if we have short duration varieties. June to July is the appropriate time for cultivation of off-season onion sets. Mostly off season onion is grown in upland. Strong research and scaling-up program are need in new varieties and crop management practices for off-season production, marketing, reducing cost of production as well as developing suitable post harvest technologies.

Key words: onion, off-season, varieties, planting date, cultivation

1. Introduction

1.2 Background information

Nepal has great potentiality in the production of different types vegetable and spices due to its diverse agro-climatic condition. Onion (Allium cepa L.) included under Alliaceae family is a major bulbous crop among the cultivated vegetable crops and it is of global importance. It is the important condiments widely used in all households as a spice and salad all the year round. Onions not only provide flavor, they also provide important nutrients and health promoting phytochemicals. This contains vitamin C, vitamin B1, dietary fiber, folic acid, calcium and high protein. Quercetin, a kind of flavonoid (one category of antioxidant compounds) act as a antioxidant which slow the process of oxidative damages of cell and tissues of body. Several studies shows that onion has beneficial effect against the many disease and disorder like cardiovascular disease as well as cancer of breast, colon, ovarian, gastric lung and bladder. (Onion health research, 2014).

With a review of statistical data of production of onion in Nepal it is found that the production and productivity of onion is much lower in the country. According to the annual report, 2069 published by Vegetable Development Directorate, khumaltar, the production of onion in fiscal year 2068/69 is 286467 mt from 20593 ha area. This shows the productivity of Nepal 13.91 mt/ ha which is much less than the overall productivity of world 19.89 mt/ha. If we look upon the annual report 2068 of Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable Market Development committee import of onion from India and other country in 2068B.S. is 19789.06 mt (green onion 939.265mt and 18849.798mt). This is only the report of Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable Market Development Committee, import is higher than this report because of unrecorded import by local trader in the border area. This scenario of onion import in the country urged government to take program to upgrade the domestic production and productivity.

Nepal has given much priority in recent year to produce onion in the country. Government of Nepal has conducted the Mission Onion Program since 2064 B.S. The main aim of this program is to substitution of import and reducing the dependency on onion in import. Now this program is running in 10 districts of the country. This program assists the farmer in providing seed, irrigation, plant protection, and training to the farmer. Up to 2068/69 this program running in 10 districts Saptari, Siraha, Sarlahi, Dhanusa, Bara, Parsa, Rupandehi, Dang, Banke and Badriya. Production of onion from this program is 35,000 mt from 2474.8 ha area.

Area, production and productivity of Mission Onion Program in fiscal year 2068/69.

S.N.	District	Area (ha)	Production (mt)	Productivity(mt/ha)
1.	Saptari	405.8	4058	10.00
2.	Siraha	413	10648	25.78
3.	Dhanusha	400	7775	19.44
4.	Sarlahi	252	3780	15.00
5.	Bara	369	8200	22.22
6.	Parsa	100	1500	15.00
7.	Rupandehi	220	5830	26.50
8.	Dang	61	767.13	12.58
9.	Banke	150	1908	12.72
10.	Bardiya	100	1420	14.20
	Total	2470.8	45886.13	18.57

Sources: Annual progress report of Vegetable development directorate 2068/69.

The quantity of onion production in a country is not enough to meet the present domestic requirement. There is continuous increase in demand of onion in the country but the production on onion in the country accounts for less than 50% of total supplies in the major market center of Nepal even in the harvesting season. Large amount of onion have to import from India and China. At the harvest time farmers are compelled to sell their product in minimum price where in offseason (September to January) there is high increase in price of onion. Long time storage of onion causes a great problem due to high humidity and high temperature. Large portion of bulbs are lost due to sprouting, rotting and shrinkage. Total storage losses of onion in about four month’s period (June to September) were found about 37.9% (Bhattarai and subedi, 1996 and 1998). So, off season onion production is necessary in Nepal which can somehow meet these problems. The onion bulb production from the cultivation of October to May is main season onion in Nepal while the production of onion bulb from June to December cultivation is considered as off season onion bulb production (Shakya et al., 2009).

1.2 objectives

Ø    To be familiar with the necessity of off season onion in Nepal

Ø    To access the prospects of off season onion production in the country

Ø    To be familiar with production technique of off-season onion

Ø    To identify the problem of onion productions

1.3 Rationale

Onion is an important spice which is used as a spice/condiments and salad. The demand of onion is very high in our country and rest of world. Production of onion in Nepal is very low as mention above in background information. There are lots of problem associated with the production and availability of onion in market. The scarcity of onion is high during the most demanded period like in national festivals (September to November). Farmers get low price in their produce in harvesting period and price is much higher in off-season. Though the government conducted the Mission Onion Program in the country, the demand of onion is still not fulfilled by domestic product and much quantity of onion is imported from outside the country. So, off-season production is necessary in Nepal. For the production of off season onion we should familiar with cultivation practices, problems associated with this, prospects of production and marketing. This review will help to identify the problem associated with onion production, technique of off-season onion production and future scope in Nepal. It can be the basis to government and farmer in improving production technique.

2. Materials and method

For the review of off-season onion production in Nepal information were collected from different literature available. Journal, Articles, Thesis, leaflet, booklet available in library of NARC, Annual Report of different fiscal year published in NARC and Vegetable Development Directorate (VDD) were mostly studied. Similarly, available materials in different web/internet were consulted. Literatures available were thoroughly read and important points were noted.

3. Off-season onion production

3.1 Necessity of off-season onion production in Nepal

In Nepal onion is demanded around the year but most demand of onion occurs in September to November as in this period most of national festivals like Dashain, Tihar, Chhath etc. occur. Consumption of onion is higher but in this period availability of onion in market is low because of off-season for onion production.  Domestic product of the country failed to fulfill the demand of onion even in on-season. More than 50% onion available in market is imported from India and other country even in harvesting season (koirala et al., 1995) which will be much higher in off-season. This sentence is also support by the data of 2068 B.S. published by Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable Market Development Committee as mention above in background information. We have much less facility of storing the onion for off-season. Different physiological problems are seen in storage too which reduces the quality and increase the cost. Price of onion increased up to 3-4 times of main season. More than 750 million NRP goes to India for the import of onion. By producing high quantity of onion in the country import can be substitute. So, off season onion production is necessary in the country.

3.2 Prospects of off-season onion production in Nepal

The vivid climatic conditions found in Terai, low hills, river basins and mid and high hills due to altitudinal variation and seasonal change suitable temperature regime from spring through autumn provides comparative advantage for off-season onion production. One of the techniques of off-season onion production is exploiting the agro-climatic diversity. For example in High Mountain onion can be produce in Bhadra as a normal season which is off-season for other part like mid hills and Terai. Utilizing the climatic advantage and market demand this approach intends to substitute import of onion from India and simultaneously increase the income and improve livelihood of farmers through the promotion of off-season onion production and marketing.

The steady demand of onion bulb throughout the year which is increasing every year in Nepal create the severe scarcity of onion bulbs is seen from August to March in the vegetable markets of Nepal. It is therefore the offseason production of bulb and green onions at that time can meet the demand of onion to some extent and the poor and marginalized farmers who are involved in production of off season onion can fetch the good price in the market. Farmers cultivate less profitable cereal crops during rainy season in the upland. Off-season onion does not require assure irrigation and low land. It can be grown in upland unirrigated land of mid-hill. With the cultivation of off season onion in upland, farmers can maximize their profit and raise their living standard. Mission Onion aims to replace imports by increasing the land devoted to onion farms from 15,062 ha to 27,292 ha across the country by fiscal year 2011/12. Increased area of off season onion produces more onion during profitable period.

3.3 Varietal performance in off-season onion

Onion is the cross pollinated crop and open pollinated varieties are recommended in Nepal. Seven varieties are recommended in Nepal for main season via Red Creole, Superex, TI-172, Kas, Venas, Wintersilver, Nasik 53. Other varieties are in the country are Pusa Red, Agri-found dark red, Early Grano etc. Currently in the market hybrids varieties are used commercially by farmer. Chinese onion is mostly found in agro-vet. Agri-found Dark Red varieties was entered very early in Nepal, but due to its off-season growth come to exist mostly in recent period (Paudel, 2013). Some of the commercially available onion varieties for off-season are Agrifound Dark Red, Nasik Red, N-53, Red Creole, Dadeldhura local etc.

Different verification trail have been conducted NARC and other researchers in different part of the country to see the performance of different varieties of onion. In the evaluation of different onion varieties (LR-241, N-53, Nasik Red and Red Creole) western midhills for off-season production Gautam et al., 2006 obtained the highest fresh bulb yield(16.63 t/ha) from N-53. This experiment recommended N-53 for off-season in western mid hills. According to the Annual Report FY 2066/67 verification study of NARC on off-season onion bulb production in 2 VDC of Lalitpur(Dukuchhap and Lamatar), Agrifoud Dark Red produced higher marketable yield (1780 kg/500m2) than N-53(1295 kg/ ropani). The study of different onion varieties(Agrifound Dark Red, N-53, Red Creole and Bemausami-1) in station Agrifound Dark Red was subjected to further dissemination to farmer field in Dailekh condition. Rokaya and Bhandari (2004) evaluated Nasik Red 53,Nasik Lal, Red Creole and Surkhet Local for off-season onion production through sets in Sahare, Surkhet(650 masl), Kalbhairabh (1350 masl) and Lamidanda , Doti and found that Nasik Red was 14 days earlier than other varieties. Dhakal (2008) studied on two commercial varieties of onion Agrifound Dark Red and N-53 for the offseason green production of onion in Chitwan and found Agrifound Dark Red give the higher yield and other yield attributing characters in bulb and green production in Chitwan. In this way Agrifound Dark Red is good for off-season onion production in Nepal.

S.N	Variety	Production per 2.1m2 plot(kg)	Production per Ropani (kg)	Remarks
1.	Offseason-1	13.86	2310	100% bulb formation with large bulbs
2.	Agrifound Dark Red	11.34	1890	100% bulb formation with medium bulbs
3.	Dark Red	10.50	1050	100% bulb formation with small bulbs
4.	Nasik Red-53	5.88	980	Less bulb formation
5.	Red creole	3.36	560	Too low bulb formation

Source: Kedar Budhathoki, off-season onion production, 2066

3.4 Planting date

Onion is physiologically long day plant and normally grows in Rabi season (Oct/Nov) and harvested in the month of May/June. Off-season onion is produces in September to December. The planting time is differs with different region. For the transplanting through the seedling seed should be sown in may-June and transplanting in June-July. If sets are used for transplanting sets should prepared for transplanting. The following table shows the general planting time of off-season onion in Midhill and Terai.

Mid hills
S.N.	Onion cultivation	Seed sowing	Seedling/set transplanting	Harvest time
1	Onion seed	Baishakh – Jestha	Asar- Shrawan	Mangsir-Poush
1.2	Sets of onion
1.2.1	Seed sowing and making sets	Asoj-Kartik	-	Baishakh-Jestha
1.2.2	Set transplanting		Asar- shrawan	Ght
Terai
S.N.	Onion cultivation	Seed sowing	Seedling/set transplanting		Harvest time
1.	Onion seed	Jestha-Asar	Asar-Shrawan		Mangsir-Poush
1.2	Sets of onion
1.2.1	Seed sowing for making sets	Asoj- kartik			Falgun-Chaitra
1.2.2	Set transplanting	-	Asar-Shrawan		Kartik-Mansir

Source:  Poudyal, 2013.

Different trials have been conducted in Nepal to find the best time of planting onion for off-season. Four different planting dates starting from (last week of July to last week of August) in week interval were tested by NARC in western hills of Nepal. That found last week of August as a best time of onion sets planting for Off-season onion production in western hills (NARC Research highlight 2002/03-2006/07). The 4 years experiment found that the good quality onion dry bulb can be produced in October – November sets were planted on 24 June to 25 July. Highest marketable bulb per plot was produced when the sets were planted on 25 July and this date followed by 9 July and 24 June. According to the Annual Report of Horticulture Research Division/NARC FY 2068/69 seed sown at 28^th Jestha(june 11) and transplanted at 6^th Sharwan(21 July) also gave good result in Kavre. Delay in planting from 9^th august to September, the poor bulb yield, small bulb, thick neck due to decreasing day length and decreasing temperature occurs.

3.5 cultivation practices

3.5.1 Planting material

Three types of planting material can be used for the production of off-season onion.

a.                Seed: Seed can be sown by maintaining the space. The seedling produce are allow to grow in same field without transplanting. It is not so good method. This is not much followed in Nepal. It is not efficient method for offseason onion cultivation in June- July. 600gm seed is required for one ropani.

b.               Seedling: Seed are grown in nursery and allow there for one month and then transplanted in main field. This method is mostly used by the farmers for normal season onion cultivation. The time of seed sowing and transplanting is mentioned above in planting time. Though sets are mostly used as a planting material in previous year in Nepal, the research of NARC in Lumle show that seedling also can be used as a planting material. As difficulties in the storage and size selection of sets this method is useful in India. For this short-day growing varieties are good. Normally 33000 seedlings are required for one ropani.

c.                Sets or bulbs: small bulbs or sets are used as a seed also called seed onion. Seed onion is mostly used for production of green onion and off-season onion in Nepal. Sets are used because these can tolerate frost and produce earlier than seed. Seed onion is prepared by sowing seed in normal season October- November and when the onion bulbs are the size of a thumbnail, they are ready to lift (uproot). The bulb should be firm. After lifting, plait the leaves together to make a long string of bulbs 18-24 inches long is general practice in farmer level. There may be 50-60 bulbs in a string. The strings are kept in the shade area. This string are unplait and are transplanted in main field at the end of monsoon or during monsoon in upland by keeping tunnel. Size is important part in selection of sets or bulbs. Usually diameter of 12-20 mm bulb/sets are consider as good. If size is large the splitting of bulb occurs and if very small poor formation of bulb occurs. So, size should be optimum for growth. 90 square meter area is required to produce sets for one ropani.

3.5.2 Land preparation and fertilizer/manuring

The offseason onion production is done during rainy season so the water logging area is strictly prohibited for the nursery and main field establishment. Raised nursery bed should be made for the seedlings production. The provision of drainage should be done. Solarization of the nursery bed for 10-15 days is required for the production of healthy seedlings. One protective spray of Bavistin (1.5 ml/litre) can be done against the damping off in nursery beds. More smooth soil is required for direct seedling.

Onion is heavy feeder so fertilizer dose is high for onion. Researcher generally used 100:50:100 Kg N:P2O5:K2O per hector and compost 20 t/ha. Full dose of compost, phosphorus, potash and half dose of nitrogen are used as basal dose. Nitrogen is split to two part again in top dressing at 30 and 60 days after transplanting.

3.5.3 Planting distances

For onion bulb production

The line-line planting distance should be 15 cm and plant-plant planting distance should be 10 cm. About 33333 plants can be adjusted in 1 Ropani of land if seedlings are planted with this geometry but 24% land is occupied by the space between two ridges, so only 26000 seedlings can only be transplanted in 1 Ropani of land. Shakya, 2009 has conducted an experiment on Sunwal Nawalparasi to access the plant population on bulb size and market yield of two onion varieties during rainy season 2008. Marketable bulb yield was highest at closer spacing of 10×10 cm for both the varieties which was 26.97 mt ha^-1 in Agrifound Dark Red and 22.48 mt ha^-1 in N-53. The size of bulbs increased with the increase in spacing. Very close distance decrease the size of bulb, increase the thickness of neck. So, appropriate distance is required.

For green onion production with immature bulbs

Generally the line to line distance is maintained as 10 cm where as plant to plant distance is also maintained as 10 cm distance.

3.5.4 Intercultural operation

Intercultural cultural operation include weeding, irrigation, drainage etc. weed is much in off season as it is grown in rainy season. Hand weeding is mostly adopted by farmers in context of Nepal. Chemical weeding can also be done by using Basalin, a herbicide.

Irrigation is not a problem in offseason onion as it is cultivated in rainy season but drainage may be the problem. So provision for drainage should make.

3.5.5 Harvesting

Harvesting time is differs with variety, time of transplanting, altitude, climate etc. Normally neck fall is the indication of harvesting time in onion. Neck fall may not be observed in maturity stage of onion during this season (Gautam et al., 2006). So, crop should harvest when flowering stalk start to appear. Immediately after harvest it is better to separate the green tops leaving 2.5 cm neck. Generally 110-112 days after harvesting crop becomes ready to harvest. Agrifound Dark Red becomes ready to harvest in 120-130 days after transplanting.

The crop can be harvested in 40-45 days after transplanting of seedlings and sets for the purpose of green onion. During this period (Aug-Oct) the green onion with immature bulbs can fetch high price in the high market because the period is lean period for onion availability at this time. The practice of selling the green onion with immature seedlings can be done until the period of bulb production. The green onion can be marketed from 40 – 90 days of seedlings transplanting. The crop should be harvested during evening time and the grading by removing yellow, diseased plant and bundles of 5 kg is generally made for following day transportation for the market.

The harvesting period is also differs with the altitude. The research of Kavre done by NARC, 2068, found that the bulbs were harvested earlier in low altitude (Mangaltar VDC with 700 masl) 120days after transplanting followed by Pinthali (950 masl) where latest bulb harvesting was possible at Bhagaude Besi (1100 masl) 141 days after transplanting.

3.6 Problem in off-season production

Ø    Less availability of seeds of offseason onion variety.

Ø    Difficult to produce the healthy seedlings in nursery.

Ø    High cost of cultivation

Ø    Low farm gate price

Ø    There is weed problem but the farmers are less known about the low cost weed control method.

Ø    The loss of seedlings right from nursery to the main crop in the main field due to rainy season production.

Ø    Offseason onion requires more manuring, fertilization and micro nutrients but the low use system is in tradition system.

Ø    Earlier sprouting of bulb after the onion is harvested.

Ø    Lack of storage facilitates

Ø    Farmers are not acquainted with the techniques of offseason onion production its potential market, its cost of cultivation and return from it.

3.7 Marketing

Onion is highly commercialized crops in the country and world. The study was conducted by Socioeconomics and Agricultural Research Policy Division (SARPOD) about the constraints to production and marketing and prospects for import substitution of onion and value chain. Price of onion is high in the month of November followed by December and October. Farmer can obtain profit margin if they produced in the off-season (summer and autumn). The demand of onion is increasing year by year due to increasing population, awareness in people, growing of urban area, commercialization and increase needs of processed products (dusts) in agro-based industries such as noodles factories. More than 50% onion available in market is imported from India and even from China. So, Nepalese farmer has high scope in marketing.

This study identify some constraints in production of onion in Nepal which are high cost of cultivation, low farm gate, poor seed quality, and some technological constraints like bulb production and lack of post harvest and storage. Currently the country has not exploited the potential of their production and marketing due to various constraints in value chain. Most recently an exotic onion variety namely Agrifound Dark Red has been identified to produce during the off-season in both Terai and hills.

Green onions with immature bulb have the great potentiality for generating income and substitute the use of onion bulb if the market is access from the production site.  Dahal, 2009 studied on the farmer’s perception about the green onion cultivation he found the factors encouraging and influencing the farmers for green onion production are high market price in lean period, short duration crop and no sprouting problems as in bulbs. Quality and quantity of onion is important in the marketing. Quality should maintain for distant market and export. Also it is important in nearer market. Grading is done for distant market and kept in red colored jute sack weighing it as 25 kg.

4. Conclusion

Onion has great marketing value in our country as well as in the rest of world. The increasing demand in country and high import from other country should be address. With the use of great diversity of country we can produce onion that can fulfilled the demand of country and can export to foreign. Off –season onion production is important tools to meet the demand of onion in high demanding season. From this approach farmer can increase their income. For the offseason onion in Nepal very few varieties are available. Agrifound dark red is seems to be most appropriate among other in country and last June to last of July date is seems to be good for transplanting of off-season onion in mid hill and Terai.

Strong research and scaling-up programs are needed in new varieties and crop management practices for off-season production, marketing, reducing cost of production as well as developing suitable post harvest technologies. Assurance of quality seed and regular monitoring and evaluation of seed production is necessary. Similarly for offseason onion short day during harvesting are required. So that off season onion production can be promote in the country.

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