Onion is one of the most popular vegetables used by people all over the world. Indian onions are known for their pungency and are available throughout the year. Onion cultivation is simple and profitable as it requires very little investment. The other advantage is that plant care is also very simple – even those who are new to farming can start farming onions easily. In this article, we will show you the investment required to cultivate one acre of onions as well as the selling price range.

Investment required for one acre of onion cultivation

Onion cultivation has various components. This is a rough estimate of the money required for each of them:

Seeds – The average cost of high-quality seeds is between ₹1,500 – ₹3,000 per kg. However, the price may change from company to company and region to region. Nashik onions, for example, are highly valued and therefore Nashik onion seeds fetch a high price. This is a rough estimate of onion seed price per kg. 4 kg of onion seeds have to be sown in one acre. This comes to around ₹8,000.

Land preparation – The land preparation for onion cultivation includes deep ploughing (the process of breaking and loosening the soil) and nursery seedbed preparation. This usually takes four days with two labourers. For onion farming, the average cost of one labourer is between ₹350 – ₹500 per day. Therefore, the estimated cost for land preparation is approximately ₹4,000.

Transplanting – Transplanting is done in a single day – either early in the morning or in the evening after 4 pm. Four labourers are required to transplant onion seedlings to one acre. The labour cost for transplanting will come to around ₹2,000.

Weeding – Weeding is done once every fortnight. This means you will require 2 labourers every fifteen days in 3 months. The labour cost for weed and intercultural operations for this period will cost around ₹3,000.

Pesticides and fertilizers – Before sowing, onion seed treatment is done with 3gm Captan, Thiram and COC (Copper Oxy Chloride). The dosage is applied at a ratio of 40:20:40 kg/acre. The total cost of these pesticides and fertilizers comes up to approximately ₹5,000 per acre.

Maintenance – Regular activities like fertilizer application and irrigation can cost around ₹15,000.

Harvesting, grading, and packaging – Harvesting is done 3 months from sowing. Harvesting a one-acre onion farm is mostly done in a single day. This requires 6 labourers and can cost ₹3000. Packaging is done after the onions have been graded into three grades depending on size, shape, and quality and this can cost up to ₹1000.

Based on the above calculations, we can say that the total cost of cultivating one acre comes to around ₹41000*. This may vary slightly from region to region.

Selling onions at a profit

Onion farming yield provides 1.5 times* the profit of the total investment. To calculate the profit in onion farming yield per acre, we have to take the average wholesale market value of onions per annum. The average selling range of onions in the market is between ₹800 to ₹2300. Onion prices vary throughout the year. Sometimes, they can increase by four times, and sometimes they remain low. Yet, there is no doubt that onion farming in India is profitable.

Online trading of onions

Online trading is very easy nowadays thanks to agri tech companies like Bijak which allow traders to sell onions with counterparties across India using their agri trading platform. You can buy or sell onions very easily with complete security and trustworthy stakeholders. You can read more about the features it offers here. Bijak is India’s most trusted agri-trading app that acts as a meeting point for farmers, Buyers and Suppliers from across the country. You can call us at 8588998844, email us at contact@bijak.in and download our app from Google Playstore and Apple App Store.

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*Disclaimer: The material published on this blog is for general information purposes only. Even though we try to provide only well-researched material on this blog, we suggest that you do not use it as a basis for making any legal or business decisions.