Onion detopping machine- Adoption through Front Line Demonstration

Abstract

An Onion detopping machine was designed and developed at ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru to detop the harvested and cured onion crops. This machine has a capacity of 350 kg/h against 30 kg/h manual practice and works with an efficiency of 98%. The unique design of the detopper is suitable for all sizes of onions. This machine was demonstrated widely to the onion growing farmers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu States. Multiplier type onion is one among the three major types onions which is widely grown in Tamil Nadu. Multiplier onion are stored along with leaves after harvest and detopped before sending to market. Cutting and removing of the leaves from the onion crop is called detopping. Presently this is done manually by farm women, individual onions are picked and detopping is done by using hand tool. This is time consuming and highly drudgery in nature. A Front Line Demonstration of this machine was conducted to a FPO in Tamil Nadu and about 25 tonnes of onion crops was detopped over a period of 45 days. The FPO was satisfied with the performance of the machine and purchased the machine. The FPO stated that that an amount of Rs. 270/q is spent by machine against Rs. 470/q by manual detopping. The machine is being now used by the members of FPO on custom hiring basis. This machine reduces the labour requirement by 75% and also ensured timeliness of operation thus helped in tapping higher returns during peak market demand period.