I'm a starter
Onion farming is quickly gaining popularity in Kenya and Uganda and most urban professionals have been lured into this lucrative venture. Many though have ended up being dissapointed due to lack of expertise in the crop. As a starter, its very important you understand how to start on the right footage to avoid mistakes that may never be rectified later in your growing season. This include site selection, seed variety and the spray program. When starting onion farming, make sure you understand atleast the initial procedures at the nursery for proper management and a higher germination rate. The following are procedures to guide you through:
SITE SELECTION
Site selection is a very important aspect. When thinking of growing onions,think of water proximity.
Is the site near a water source, is the topography level or slopy? Is the area secure? All this will affect your production in one way or another, for example the slopy topography will change the entire layout of the farm during land preparation.
Onions need a fairly level land to enable quality bulb formation. Before you go into onion production do a personal research of the climate/wearther pattern of that particular region and find out which months have long rains and which months have the short rains as well as the period that experience th dry spells. Why is this important? you may ask.
This is important because of some onion characteristics. Knowing this characteristics will enable you to do a proper timing during sowing based on the weather pattern of that region. At maturity,Onions require a dry period with no rainfall or irrigation at all.
At this point, any irrigation must seize and incase your cultivation is dependent on rainfall, the timing should be in such a way that the rains have stopped. Onions, hybrid onions, take about 120-145 days to reach maturity. This means that you have to time your sowing to align with weather pattern in your area. If it happens to be raining during the maturity stage of the onions, rotting sets in and you may loose nearly all your investment. Fpr example you can put your nusery in January to harvest in May. This means it shouldnt be raining in may,in most kenyan climates, it doesnt rain during this period. You may as well put your nursery in late August to harvest in mid/end December where the long rains will have subsided. The idea is, plan your production in such a way that at the maturity period[3 weeks before harvesting] the rains have subsided. Incase its under irrigation, watering must sieze as well.
VARIETY
Many starters choose varieties blindly and do not do intense research on the best and high yielding varieties in the market. Due to their naivety and inexperience in onion farming, many farmers especially in Nairobi have ended up victims of the fake seed scam. Its therefore important for starters to be versed with enough knowledge on onion varieties available and where to access the genuine seeds. Currently, going by the statistics, a few varieties have been listed as the most planted in kenya. This include: Jambar F1, Red passion F1, Red pinoy F1, Redcreole and Red cornet F1.
Jambar F1 is planted for size and yield. It has a potential to grow as twice as the size of a tennis ball and its potential yield stands at 28 tonnes per acre. However, there are very few instances where farmers have achieve that yield. According to spacing from one plant to another, the size of the bulbs may vary. Reducing the spacing, reduces the size of individual bulbs. Actually squizing jambar onions seedlings will result in medium sized bulbs. This is good for export and the urban market
Red passion F1, redcreole and Red pinoy are planted for market as they are the traders favorites. On interviewing a number of traders, the conclusion is that this varieties have quality deep red bulbs that attract customers and they do not grow as big as jambar. However the yield is not as high as that of jambar and ranges from 10-20 tonnes per acre. Redcornet is a new variety and most say its doing as well as other varieties but we have put it under trial so as to know what you should expect from it as a farmers. Bombay Red is largely grown in Tanzania compared to kenya. Jambar seeds sell most in shops but at the market there are bought at 20-28 kes per kilo while redpinoy, redpassion and bombay may fetch up to 60 kes per kilo. Apparently, this traders can tell the difference between all this varieties. The potential in jambar is higher is the spacing is minimal and watering is constant. Fertilizing is also key, and the end product is just as amazing as this other varieties and with a much higher yield, so you just need to play it wisely.
NUSERY PREPARATION
After we have got it right on site selection and variety choice, we prepare the nursery beds. This beds are dermined by the sort of climate in the region. If the place is hot, the soil is hard and water is scarce, the nuseries will be designed in a basinlike manner to help hold more water and for a longer period. This method ensures the seedlings get enough water through transplanting. Where the soil is silty or redsoil or light soil and water is not much of a problem, the beds maye raised atleast 30cm high as this will enable the water to seep through in the case its too much to evaporate.
SOWING
On sowing, many farmers use different methods. There is the furrow method and the broadcasting method. I prefer the furrow method as the germination rate is higher than in the furrow method. This is because broadcasting lets each seed fall individually on the soil whereas in the furrow method seeds seem to pile on each other especially when you cover with soil. After sowing the seeds, apply DAP fertilizer then cover with a thin layer of soil then finally cover with dry mulch and water immediately. Water constantly thereafter once/twice a day depending on the intesinty of the sun. Do this for 6 weeks.
SPRAYING
The spray program for onions is essential and would be well understood through a video footage coming soon on our youtube channel !
