Onion

A winter crop. Sow in Dec, harvest in Apr.

Check it on your land
Season
Rabi
JJASONDJFMAM

Sowing Growing Harvest

60% of its area. Also grown in kharif, summer.
Ready in
130 days
about 4½ months
Water
590–650 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
12–25 °C
0 °C survives 4–33 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Rabi 60% of its area
Kharif 40% of its area
Summer
Today: kharif harvest
J J A S O N D J F M A M
Sow Growing Harvest
The year starts in June, with the monsoon. Your district can shift a few weeks.

Sowing Growing Harvest

Will it grow on your land?

Kottayam Kerala
Water
Season

Won't work: too dry without irrigation

Onion

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in December, harvest around April

No figures for your district: its government crop records list no area or yield for this crop. Sold at 16 mandis in your district.

Only with irrigation: rain gives too little of its water to count on

  • Doesn't suit: Too dry without irrigation
  • Needs care: Warm in December
  • Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.

Needs about 530 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 140 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 31 °C / 23 °C (outside its best range)
  • Jan 32 °C / 23 °C (outside its best range)
  • Feb 32 °C / 24 °C (outside its best range)
  • Mar 33 °C / 25 °C (outside its best range)
  • Apr 33 °C / 25 °C (outside its best range)

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Soil

Soil for Onion: 9 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: nitrogen.

  • Soil here is often more acidic than it likes.
  • Many fields here are short of potassium, which it needs a lot.
  • Most fields here are short of boron.

Likes pH 6.0–7.0.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 64 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).

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 (April–May 2026): about ₹2,300 a quintal at mandis in your district.

This week: about ₹5,650 a quintal, the middle of 8 mandis in your district (latest 13 Nov).

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹3,000 2021
  2. ₹2,450 2022
  3. ₹2,550 2023
  4. ₹3,850 2024
  5. ₹2,700 2025

Prices are usually best in November.

Typical costs are about ₹42,000 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

  • Short of boron Your soil is likely short of boron.

    Mix 4 kg of borax per acre into the soil before sowing.

    Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.

Fertiliser for one acre here

Urea
83 kg
DAP
35 kg
MOP
40 kg

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

See every crop that suits Kottayam

What it needs

Temperature

12–25 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 4–33 °C.

Water

590–650 mm over its season

Rain and irrigation together, worked out where most of it grows:

Bhavnagar Vijayapura Chitradurga Amreli Rajkot

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 4.3 to 8.3.

Soil

  • No salty soil
  • Ordinary farm soil is fine
  • N Needs plenty of nitrogen, potassium and sulphur
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); ICAR-DOGR; FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 29; FAO-56 crop coefficients (Allen et al. 1998); IMD gridded daily rainfall (0.25°); IMD gridded daily max/min temperature (1°); TerraClimate 1991–2020 temperature normals (about 4 km), where each district's villages are.

Fertiliser for one acre

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra

For most fields

Urea nitrogen
83 kg about 1¾ bags of 45 kg
DAP phosphate
35 kg about ¾ of a 50 kg bag
MOP potash
40 kg about ¾ of a 50 kg bag

Sulphur: 12 kg for one acre, from about 65 kg of gypsum or 100 kg of single super phosphate

Give the DAP and MOP at sowing, and the urea in two or three doses. If your soil card says a nutrient is low, add about a quarter more of it.

Watch out for

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra
  • Thrips
    Pest

    Look for

    Silvery-white streaks on leaves; tips dry.

    What to do first

    Use blue sticky traps; spray when thrips are many. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Purple blotch
    Disease

    Look for

    Purple spots with yellow edges on the leaves.

    What to do first

    Spray mancozeb when spots appear. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Stemphylium blight
    Disease

    Look for

    Yellow-orange streaks on the leaves that turn brown.

    What to do first

    Spray mancozeb when streaks appear. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Basal rot
    Disease

    Look for

    Bulbs rot from the base, in the field and in store.

    What to do first

    Rotate crops and cure bulbs well before storing.

What an acre earns

At India's average yield and a recent price, named below. Your land, water and mandi will differ.

Left an acre, a season

₹19,900

Yield India's average
61.8 quintals an acre
× Price harvest price last season (Apr 2026)
₹1,200 a quintal
= Income
₹74,100
− Costs about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys
−₹54,200
= Left
₹19,900

This week onion sells at about ₹4,200 a quintal: India's middle price at 582 mandis, latest 13 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹2,05,200 a season.

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹59,300 to ₹88,900 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
November, ₹4,300 a quintal
Lowest
April, ₹1,200 a quintal
₹1,200
₹4,300
J F M A M J J A S O N D

Rupees a quintal, typical across India's mandis: each month's latest price (Dec 2025–Nov 2026).

Latest prices near Kottayam Today's price across India

Source: Agmarknet daily prices and arrivals (India Data Portal).

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
49.8 lakh acres
2025-26
Average yield
61.8 quintals an acre (15.3 tonnes a hectare)
2025-26
Most area
Maharashtra
49% of India's

States that grow it

Each state's share of India's production, in its latest year with figures (2025-26). Tap a state to open it.

Source: Horticulture area & production statistics (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare).

Where it grows most

The districts with the most area in recent years. The map colours every district growing it on at least 100 ha by yield; the numbers mark these districts.

District figures cover only 22% of India's onion area, so the districts aren't listed. The states show where it grows.

Soil and yield

How district soil tests line up with this crop's yields across India.

Onion yields tend to be higher in districts with

  • More soil that is neutral moderate 340 districts

Onion yields tend to be lower in districts with

  • More soil that is acidic moderate 340 districts

A pattern is not proof that soil causes the difference.

Source: Soil Health Card – soil nutrient analysis (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare).