Vol. 17 No. 2
Impact of cut bulb and weight on seed yield of onion cv. Sukhsagar
Author(s): S. BANIK, D.K. GHOSH (LKN), N. CHATTOPADHYAY AND A. BANDYOPADHYAY
Abstract: Reduction of onion seed cost may play an important role in bridging the demand supply gap of onion bulbs. An appropriate cultural manipulation to reduce the mother bulb requirement is the key cost component of onion seed production. Keeping this in view,consecutive two years experiment was carried out at HRS, Mondouri, BCKV, on clay loam soil during rabi seasons of 2017-2019 to evaluate the performance of three different sizes of onion mother bulb (60-80g,80-100g and >100g ) and portion of each size mother bulb (whole bulb,1/3 rd circular cut bulb, longitudinally 1/3 rd cut bulb and longitudinally ½ cut bulb) of Sukhsagar cultivar in a RCBD with 3 replications in 2mx2.5m plot. The experimental results revealed that, maximum seed weight of 320.29g plot-1 was recorded under whole bulbs of >100 g weight and minimum of 185.57g plot-1associated with 1/3 rd longitudinally cut bulbs. In case of 80-100g size of bulb maximum seed weight of 284.39 was recorded under whole size bulb and minimum of 164.17g was recorded with 1/3 rd longitudinally cut bulb. Similarly in whole bulb of 60-80 g, maximum seed yield of 223.32 g plot-1 was found in whole bulbs whereas minimum (136.17g plot-1) was recorded under longitudinally 1/3 rd cut bulbs. It was clear that, among the three sizes of mother bulb maximum net return (Rs.402862, Rs.321487 and Rs.194932 ha-1 , respectively) and maximum B: C ratio (2.44,2.21 and 1.77 respectively) was only recorded in longitudinally ½ cut bulb of >100g, 80-100g and 60-80g size respectively followed by whole or1/3 rd circular cut bulb. Cost analysis of onion seed production among different sizes shows that expenditure behind procurement of mother bulbs alone contributes maximum share which ranges between 23- 58.06% of the total expenditure. Thus, longitudinally portions of ½cut reduced mother bulb requirement by 50%. Net return, benefit cost ratio, benefit in terms of rupees or grams per unit rupee investment in mother bulbs were higher than that of using whole mother bulb of any size. Based on economic considerations, ½cut bulb of any size and weight (60-80g, 80-100g and above 100g) can be recommended instead of using conventional whole bulb of 60 to >100g weight as cost saving onion seed production options with a possibility of doubling the area under seed production of onion.
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