Improve profitability and productivity in Onion farming

Improving Profitability and productivity is one of the key aspects of the sustainability of Onion farming.It should be done by ensuring the quality of the Onions . Every farmer should work towards increasing their productivity and implement continuous productivity improvement mechanisms in their field for every crop they cultivate.Understanding the areas of improvement can help them to seek the advice of experts and do necessary improvement actions so that they get increased profit and quality product.Hence understanding area of improvement is very important.

Below are some of the key opportunity areas where Onion farmers in India can work towards increasing their productivity and profitability.

1)Improve your Land: Even though this is primary aspect of Onion farming,some farmers have no other option while selecting the Land for Onion farming.They are doing farming in their Own/available land.But understanding the soil,taking experts advice,improving the infrastructure of the land like irrigation system,connectivity can improve their productivity and profitability.Every farmers should solve one or two infrastructure issues in their land every year.

2)Improve Labour force: Labours who are working in the field are very important area of improvement.Ever year one or who study classes to be arranged for the labours on productivity /crop management/new technology aspects.This will definitely bring improvements in your farm.Also invest in bringing new machines /technology to your farm to automate the tasks. Do not go for ver big changes if you are a small scale farmer.But do small small changes every year.

3)New Seeds to be tested: You should test new seeds in small area of your farm every year.If you are satisfied with the result,then go for implementing in your farm.Every year our Agricultural universities and researchers are bring new highly productive seeds for our farmers.You should take benefits of the same.Get in touch with your nearest Krishi Vigyan Kendras  and Agricultural universities  in your state. Definitely you can get latest updates and you will get benefited out of it.

One thing you need to keep in mind-:You should test the same in your farm and get satisfying result before implementing the same in your farm.Keep it as a procedure to safeguard you from any adverse effect as our farm is different from the test conditions of the researchers.

4)Implement Greenhouse:You should work towards Greenhouse farming.This is the future of the farming and you will get benefited by controlling the bad effects of  weather conditions.For more details you can go through Greenhouse farming-Future technology of Indian Agriculture 

5)Prepare seasonal calendar: You should keep a calendar which contain your Onion farming season,the price you got on your Onions,Market price fluctuations,Bad weather season,Crop damage season, Low yield season etc.You should map all these aspects in a single calendar. Once you have mapped all these aspects,you will come to know the best time period you should farm Onions and the season you should avoid.

6)Eliminate unnecessary works:Farmers should avoid unnecessary reworks and should do what is necessary.If you take care at the starting itself,you can avoid replanting and save the labour cost.For more details,please read Onion Farming. Utilising greenhouse farming method will also help you the eliminate many unnecessary labour intensive tasks. 

7)Work towards improving marketing channels: Currently the common Onion farmer is relying on below marketing network for selling their Onions

Onion Farmer--->commission Agent--->wholesaler--->retailer--->Consumer.

Since the consumer price is determined by market price, the more the length of the marketing network,the less price Onion farmer enjoy for their products. Hence every Onion farmer should work towards reduce the length of the network.Forming Co-Operative societies and groups will help farmers to achieve this task.It is very important for the sustainability of the farm revenue.

      Hope above post will help you to achieve more revenue and profit in coming years.Apart from above points,if you feel to add more points,please add as comment below.It will surely help everyone who is in this field.

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Onion Farming in India

Onions are one of the popular vegetables used by people all over the world.In India,it is the second largest vegetable cultivated from soil by quantity. Potato is the first one.For Indians,Onions are part of their daily food which cannot be replaced with any other vegetable.Hence Onion price hike can badly affect the day to day economics of Indians.Sometimes increase in the Onion prices affect the political stability of governments.Hence Onion prices are closely watched by all state governments in India.

Recent price increase of Onions in 2019 given golden opportunity for farmers to get maximum benefits from Onion Farming.Unfortunately most of the farmers were not in a position to utilise this opportunity as their crops were damaged due to heavy rain in some parts of India.Since onion is a highly perishable vegetable,utmost care to be maintained by farmers who are farming Onion.Since bad weather can affect the production,it is advisable for farmers to slowly move towards Greenhouse farming to avoid such damages.

In order to take advantages of such sudden price hikes,farmers should be equipped with knowledge of farming of all types of crops so that they can utilise some parts of their farm land for such crops whose prices are on rise.Farmer should be able to gather information as early as possible and divert some of their resources towards such seasonal changes to get maximum benefits out of it.Forming farmers Co-Operative societies will be very helpful in this case.

Having knowledge of cultivating Onions will always give great advantage for farmers to capture such situations where Onion prices go high.This will also enable them to understand such situations where the chance of  crop damages are high and utilise such situations effectively.

Preparation of Soil

 The soil should be lite and water should be easily drained.It should be rich with organic manures like cow dung or composts.Watering facility should be available as Onions require water in great quantity.Beds are prepared 1.5m * 10 m with hight of .5m. The soil must be enriched with organic matters to ensure healthy onion harvest. Farming inside a greenhouse will help to avoid adverse weather impacts.

Planting

Seeds are used to plant Onions.Transplanting is also done.But it is better to plant seeds are small distances and avoid transplanting to save on labour costs.Winter seasons are best for farming Onions.but farmer can take advantage of sudden price hikes by farming inside Greenhouses. Recommended seed rates are 5 Kg /ha.You can derive the ratio based on your available land.Onions take up to 12 days to germinate.Seeds to be planted at a depth of 3 cm and space between seeds to be kept as 10 cm within rows and 25 cm between rows.

Maintenance

You should be using certified/Quality seeds.Virus affected onion plants to be removed time to time.Weeds are also to be controlled.Watering should be done daily.Avoid water logging.You must regularly inspect your field.

 Harvesting

Onions will mature within 4-5 months after planting.Onions must be harvested when the leaves are dried completely. You can un root onion plants after 120 days and keep it in the field for one week to dry. Utmost care to be taken to avoid water entry during this time.While storing the onions ,air circulation must be ensured.

Getting trained

Through this post we are trying to provide you an overview of the Onion farming. Before getting into the farm field,you must ensure that you are equipped with quality training.You can contact your nearest Krishi Vigyan Kendra to get yourself enrolled for Onion farming training.This will help you to get latest knowledge and training in Onion farming.Wish you all the very best.

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