Onion
Sow in December, harvest around June
Grown on 64 acres here. Sold at 3 mandis in your district.
Only with irrigation: rain gives too little of its water to count on
- Doesn't suit: Too dry without irrigation
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.
Needs about 480 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 160 mm it can use in a normal year, and 80 mm in a dry year.
Temperature
Grows best at 12–25 °C on average, and survives 4–33 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Dec 14 °C / 3 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 11 °C / 2 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 13 °C / 4 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 18 °C / 8 °C
- Apr 23 °C / 12 °C
- May 26 °C / 15 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Onion: 8 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: sulphur and boron.
- The pH here suits it.
- Many fields here are short of nitrogen, which it needs a lot.
Likes pH 6.0–7.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 27 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).
Rain gives it too little of the water it needs, so there's no income figure on rain alone: grow it only with irrigation.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (June–July 2026): about ₹2,663 a quintal at mandis in your district.
This week: about ₹4,650 a quintal, the middle of 2 mandis in your district (latest 13 Nov).
- ₹2,750 2021
- ₹2,100 2022
- ₹2,250 2023
- ₹3,250 2024
- ₹2,350 2025
Prices are usually best in September.
Typical costs are about ₹41,000 an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.
How to make it work
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Short of nitrogen Your soil is likely short of nitrogen.
Add about a quarter more urea than the usual dose, in two or three splits. A pulse crop in rotation also adds nitrogen.
Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.