Growth, yield and quality of onion cultivars under laterite belt of Eastern India

Abstract

Onion (Allium cepa, Family: Alliaceae, 2n=16) is grown for consumption as vegetable and spices. India is the second largest producer of onion with an area of 12.70 lakh ha and production of 215.64 lakh ton. West Bengal is an onion deficit state, where the coverage is 29.0 thousand ha with production of 465.45 thousand ton (Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & farmers Welfare 2017). Yield of onion is dependent on the use of high yielding varieties and adaptability of that variety to a region (Mahanthesh et al. 2008; Gupta and Singh 2016). Red and Laterite Zone of West Bengal which covers western districts of the State (extension of Chota Nagpur Plateau), is a non-traditional area of onion cultivation. Here, farmers have grown onion limited to kitchen garden. However, commercial cultivation of onion has been started by some farmers encouraging by seeing the market return. Thus, potential lies for increasing area, production and productivity of onion in this region (Dhar et al. 2016). Here, farmers are relying upon the cultivar Sukhsagar, which is an heirloom onion cultivar that exclusively cultivated in entire West Bengal. In India, many new onion varieties were developed by various public institutions and private seed companies in recent past, Therefore, standardization of cultivars for rabi season in West Bengal has immense utility. Haldar et al. (2009) identified some early rabi season onion varieties suitable for growing under New Alluvial Zone (Gangetic plains) of West Bengal.