Onion
Sow in December, harvest around May
Grown on 36 acres here. Priced from mandis across your state.
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 9/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.
Needs about 490 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 120 mm it can use in a normal year, and 90 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 / 4 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 12 °C / 2 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 15 °C / 4 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 19 °C / 8 °C
- Apr 25 °C / 11 °C
- May 27 °C / 13 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Onion: 9 out of 10 (good).
- The pH here suits it.
- Many fields here are short of nitrogen, which it needs a lot.
- Many fields here are short of sulphur, which it needs a lot.
Likes pH 6.0–7.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 61 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 (May–June 2026): about ₹1,300 a quintal across mandis in your state.
This week: about ₹2,500 a quintal, the middle of 14 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov).
- ₹1,830 2021
- ₹1,450 2022
- ₹1,430 2023
- ₹2,300 2024
- ₹1,480 2025
Prices are usually best in September.
Typical costs are about ₹38,000 an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), 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.