Onion

Nursery sowing in October–November for the main rabi crop grown for storage; May–June for kharif and August–September for late kharif. Transplanting follows 6–8 weeks after nursery sowing, once seedlings are pencil-thick.

Roughly 8–10 kg/ha of seed, raised in a nursery, gives enough seedlings for about 250,000–300,000 plants per hectare at typical spacing (15 × 10 cm). Buy fresh, certified seed each season — onion seed loses germination quickly in storage.

Onion is a day-length-sensitive crop: short-day varieties are bred for kharif and long-day-responsive varieties for rabi, and they are not interchangeable. Sowing the wrong type for the season caps bulb size no matter how well everything else — fertilizer, water, pest control — is managed.

Regular light irrigation every 8–10 days through vegetative growth and bulb development, then a deliberate, complete stop 10–15 days before harvest. This is one of the most important and most skipped steps in the whole crop — bulbs harvested from wet soil cure poorly and rot fast in storage, undoing months of good field management.

A common recommendation is 100:50:50 kg/ha of N:P:K, with roughly a third of the nitrogen at transplanting and the rest split across two top dressings. The last nitrogen dose is deliberately given before bulb initiation, around 45–50 days — nitrogen applied later than that delays bulb maturity and shortens storage life.

Most likely purple blotch, the most common and damaging foliar disease of onion in India, favoured by warm, humid weather and heavy dew. Spray mancozeb or a suitable combination fungicide at first appearance — see the Diseases section above for the full programme.

No — onion has no Minimum Support Price, and its price is among the most politically watched in India because it swings hard between glut and shortage. Export policy changes (bans or duties) can move the domestic price sharply within days, on top of the normal seasonal supply swings. The live mandi price on this page is the most useful real-time signal for deciding when to sell from storage.

Look for silvery-white streaks and patches on leaves, visible against the light, caused by tiny pale yellow to brown insects rasping the leaf surface. Thrips are the single most damaging pest of onion in India and thrive in hot, dry weather — spray as soon as silvering is visible on a meaningful share of leaves rather than waiting for heavier damage.

250–350 quintals per hectare under normal irrigated management; over 350 q/ha is achievable with a high-yielding variety, timely sowing and good thrips control.

Curing dries the neck and outer skin into a papery seal that keeps out rot organisms — skip it or do it poorly, and even a well-grown crop rots fast in storage. Field-cure lifted bulbs in windrows for 3–5 days with tops left on to shade them, then continue curing under shade for 1–2 weeks until the neck and skin are fully dry, before bagging.

When 50–70% of leaves (necks) have fallen over naturally and started to dry — usually 120–140 days after transplanting for a rabi storage crop. Don’t wait for all leaves to dry; that risks bulbs splitting or re-rooting in the field.

Store properly cured bulbs in a well-ventilated chawl (a raised, slatted structure) rather than a sealed room — airflow, not just shade, is what actually prevents storage rot. Even under good management, 25–40% storage loss over 4–6 months is typical, since onion has no true dormancy and keeps respiring and occasionally sprouting in storage.

PM-KISAN is not crop-specific — any landholding farmer family meeting the scheme’s land-record and eligibility criteria qualifies, onion or otherwise. See the Related schemes section below.

Yes, under PMFBY (Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana), where onion is included in your state’s notified crop list. Onion is classified as an annual horticultural crop, so the farmer’s premium is capped at 5% of the sum insured. Enrolment is seasonal — check your state’s cut-off date and notified crop list before transplanting is complete.

Private hybrid varieties top out highest, at 350–450 q/ha, but usually with a shorter storage life than a traditional open-pollinated variety. Among the storage-bred options, Bhima Super and Agrifound Dark Red both reach 250–350 q/ha (Bhima Red varies more by sowing window, from 190–210 up to 480–520 q/ha) while keeping the good storage quality that matters most for a rabi crop sold months after harvest.

Roughly 3.2–4 kg per acre (8–10 kg/ha), raised in a nursery — sold in small packs rather than bags, since onion seed is bought fresh each season and loses germination quickly if held over.

Splitting and double centres usually trace back to irregular moisture during bulb development — a dry spell followed by heavy irrigation or rain — or occasionally to overgrown, stressed seedlings at transplanting. Consistent moisture through the 60–100 day bulb-development window is the main prevention.

Yes, direct-seeded onion is used on some larger mechanised farms, and it saves the labour and time of raising and transplanting a nursery. It needs more precise weed control in the early weeks, since there is no head start from transplanting larger seedlings, and stand establishment is generally less uniform than a transplanted crop.

Mancozeb or a suitable combination fungicide, sprayed at first appearance and repeated every 7–10 days through a favourable spell. Keeping foliage dry — avoiding overhead irrigation and spacing plants for airflow — reduces how often you need to reach for it.

A thick neck that will not dry down is usually a sign of nitrogen applied too late in the season, past bulb initiation around 45–50 days after transplanting. It delays maturity and is exactly why the fertilizer schedule on this page deliberately cuts nitrogen off early rather than continuing it to the end.

Onion is grown as a sole crop far more often than intercropped, since its narrow row spacing and slow early growth leave little room to share the bed. Where it is intercropped, a fast-maturing, low-canopy crop like coriander or fenugreek in the early weeks is the more common choice, harvested well before onion’s canopy needs the space.