The country’s onion output is likely to dip by over 12 per cent to 10.5 million tonnes in the 2010-11 crop year, due to untimely and erratic rains last year, a top official said.
India produced 12 million tonnes in the 2009-10 crop year. Onions are grown in three seasons — kharif (summer), late kharif and rabi (winter).
Approximately 60 per cent of the crop is grown during the rabi season, while the remaining quantity is harvested in the kharif and late kharif seasons.
“There has been a significant crop loss of about 35 per cent in the kharif season due to untimely rains,” the Nashik-based National Horticulture Research and Development Foundation’s (NHRDF) additional director, Satish Bhonde, told PTI.
Unseasonal rain in Maharashtra and Karnataka has hit production of the late kharif crop, expected to start arriving in the markets from mid-January, he said.
Maharashtra and Karnataka are the main onion producing states, accounting for almost half of total output.
Bhonde said production in the late kharif season was also expected to be slightly lower and yields could fall, because farmers are harvesting their crops prematurely to profit from the present high prices. Onion prices rocketed to a peak 70-85 per kg on December 20 and continue to sell for around Rs 40-60/kg in metros across the country.
Asked if the crop losses could be offset by enhanced production in the rabi season, which started in November, he said: “There cannot be much improvement in the rabi sowing, as nurseries have been damaged due to recent rains.”
The success of onion cultivation depends mainly on proper nursery management.
