Articles
PROSPECTS OF ONION CULTIVATION IN THE WARM-TEMPERATE HILLS OF EASTERN NEPAL AND ITS RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES FOR COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION
The bio-physical conditions of the warm-temperate hilly regions of eastern Nepal is congenial for the overall growth and development of onion, garlic and shallot.
The onion bulb produced in the hills have a very high potential to supply to the domestic markets of the Terai, and onion seeds have window of opportunity to supply to the south east Asian countries.
Preliminary observation of onion set up at PAC with the coordination of Natural Resources Institute (NRI) reveals that the exotic cultivars, Red Bombay, Early Red, Granoble, Red Synthetic, Regal PVP and Creole Red PRR produced bulb yields in the range of 12.1 to 21.8 t/ha when seedlings set out in February.
It is interesting to note that all the cultivar except Red Bombay, out yielded the widely adopted cultivar Red Creole (12.2 t/ha).
Similarly, observation form the effect of different sowing dates and methods of production (direct sowing, transplanting in pulverized and transplanting in puddled soil) of these, the direct seeding method produced the highest bulb yields.
Nevertheless, the seedlings set out in pulverized soil and puddled soil produced remarkably lower yields.
And bolting was pronounced when direct seeded while in pulverized and puddled soil produced no bolters.
Involvement of women in the onion production process is significant.
The production of bulb onions is sustainable and well integrated in the small scale production systems of the eastern hills.
Commercial strategies of bulb production by involving the local producer group, private entrepreneurs and a critical analysis of the problems of existing systems and suggestion to overcome such a problem have been included in this paper.
A series of recommendations of commercial and research strategies, constraints to production, desirable trials for varietal selection and a set of future research strategies have been recommended to strengthen the onion industry in the warm-temperate hills of eastern Nepal.
Researchers at PAC have realized that for a technology to be acceptable to the clientele, a multilocation on-farm verification research is necessary to set up in each of the agro-ecological production domains, it is reckoned that without testing in farmers’ fields the technology cannot be recommended to the concerned extension and development line agencies for its further extension.