INTRODUCTION

Onion (Allium cepa) is one of the important commercial vegetable crops grown in India. It is widely grown in different parts of the country mainly by small and marginal farmers. It is used as salad or cooked in various ways in all curries, fried, boiled or baked. It is also used in processed forms e.g. flakes, powder paste, pickles etc. It has very good medicinal value. Nutritive value of onion varies from variety to variety. Small sized onions are more nutritive than big ones. Its major value is in its flavour. Onion ranks medium in calorific value, low in protein and very low in vitamins. The factual demand of onions within the country and for the export has made it essential to supply onions round the year either from fresh harvest or from stocks. Annual production of onion is estimated to be about 168.13 Lakh tones. This quantity is enough to meet the present domestic requirement as well as export of onions. It is also necessary to have proper planning for production, post-harvest handling, storage as well as marketing so as to maintain the stability in prices and supplies. It is, however, necessary to make efforts for increasing production and minimizing post- harvest losses for meeting increasing demand both in domestic as well as export markets.

The chemical composition of onion is given as under:

Chemical composition of onion (nutritive value per 100 g of onion)

Source: 1, Nutritive Value of Indian Foods, NIN, Hyderabad; 2, CFTRI, Mysore.

AREA, PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTIVITY

A global review of onion area and production revealed that onion is grown in the world in an area of 43.64 lakh hectares with a total production of 863.44 lakh tons and productivity of 19.79 tons/ha. China and India are leading onion growing countries with a total production of 247.00 and 159.30 lakh tons, respectively during the year 2011, followed by USA, Iran, Egypt, Turkey, Russian Federation, Pakistan, Brazil, Netherlands, Brazil, Korea, Mexico and Spain as per FAO report. The productivity of onion is highest (66.16 tons/ha) in Republic of Korea, followed by USA (56.26 tons/ha), Spain (53.31 tons/ha) and Netherlands (51.64 tons/ha) while the productivity in India is quite low (14.35 tons/ha).

Global trade of onion export is 6.77 million tons and Netherland tops, exporting 1.33 million tons, followed by the India, China, Egypt, Mexico, USA, Spain, Argentina, Turkey and Poland during the year 2011 as per FAO report. Bangladesh, Malaysia, Russian Federation, UK, Japan, USA, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Netherlands, UAE, Canada, Sri Lanka and Belgium are major onion importing countries in the world.

Onion is grown widely in different parts of the country. It is important foreign exchange earning crop to the country. India produces around 168 lakh tons of onion annually ranking second in the world. The production has increased more than five times during past three decades. The reason for increase in production is mainly due to increase in area under onion cultivation from 1.94 lakh ha during 1974-75 to 10.51 lakh ha in 2012-13. India possesses many innate advantages over other onion producing countries - its large genetic base, varied soil and climatic conditions and skilled human power. However, the productivity is still low. Poor soil fertility, use of low level of inputs like manures, fertilizers and crop protection chemicals, high labour cost and crop loss due to diseases, lack of resistant varieties and post harvest losses are the major reasons for low productivity.

Currently in India the production of onion is 168.13 lakh tons from an area of 10.51 lakh hectares with the productivity of 16.0 tons/ha respectively. There is a considerable increase both in area (from 2, 50,900 to 10, 51,530 ha.) and production (from 25, 97,800 to 1 68, 13,010 tons) of onion from the year 1981-82 to 2012-13 respectively. Among the different onion growing states, Maharashtra tops in area and production, followed by Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Maharashtra has highest share both in area (24.73%) and production (27.72%).

Though, India holds premier positions in area and production, the productivity of onion (16.00 tonnes/ha) is very low compared to other countries. There is need to increase productivity and efforts will have to be made to improve the present post harvest processing and storage systems and educating the farmers and traders in handling/processing the produce hygienically.

There is a quantum jump in the export of onion during the last 3 decades (from 169771 tonnes during 1981-82 to 18.23 lakh tonnes during 2012-13) increasing the foreign exchange earnings from Rs. 29.43 to 2294.91 crores.