Archives of Agriculture and Environmental Science 2 (2): 63-67 (2017)

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Effect of planting method on onion (Allium cepa L.) bulb production in Faridpur
region of Bangladesh
R. Sarker 1*, M. Ratna2, S. Ray3, A.H.F. Fahim4 and M.J. Tithi5
1
Scientific Officer (Horticulture), Spices Research Sub-centre, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Faridpur-7800,
BANGLADESH
2
Scientific Officer (Plant Breeding), Spices Research Sub-centre, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Faridpur-
7800, BANGLADESH
3
Assistant Director (Entomology), Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, Manikgonj-1800, BANGLADESH
4
Scientific Officer (Agronomy), Spices Research Centre, BARI, Shibganj, Bogra-5810, BANGLADESH
5
Agriculture Extension Officer (Plant Breeding), Department of Agriculture Extension, Dhaka-1207, BANGLADESH
*
Corresponding author’s E-mail: rumpakbds@gmail.com

ARTICLE HISTORY ABSTRACT

Received: 20 April 2017 The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effective planting method for onion production for
Revised received: 22 May 2017 motivating onion producing farmers in Faridpur region of Bangladesh during rabi season 2014-15
Accepted: 25 May 2017 and 2015-16 at spices Research Sub-centre, Faridpur. The number of treatment was four viz., Raised
bed + Spices Research Centre (SRC) recommended practice, Raised bed + Farmer’s practice, Flat
Keywords method + Spices Research Centre (SRC) recommended practice and Flat method + Farmer’s
Bulb production practice. The onion variety BARI Piaz-1 used as planting material. The SRC recommended practice
Onion consist of seed sowing at 2nd week of November + seedlings transplanting at the end of December +
Planting method Spacing (10cm × 10cm) + Irrigation (4times) + weeding (four at 15, 25, 45 and 60 DAT) + Fungi-
Spices cide application with Rovral and Ridomil gold (four spray when disease appears) + Insecticide
application (2-3 spray when/before thrips / insect appears) + Fertilizer doses (cow dung 5 ton ha -1,
N120, P54, k75 and S20 kg ha-1. On the other hand farmer’s practice consist of seed sowing at last week
of November in flat seed bed + seedling transplanting at 3 rd week of January + Spacing (10cm ×
7cm) + Irrigation (2-3 times) + Weeding (2times) + Fungicide application with Rovral, Score and
other type of ineffective fungicide at 5-7 days interval + insecticide application with Confidor after
thrips / insect appears + Fertilizer doses (N46, P45, k30 and S16 kg ha-1. The results of the study
revealed that planting method and management practices had significant impact on yield and yield
attributes of onion and among the treatments the highest yield was found from Raised bed + SRC
recommended practice. Significantly highest yield 14.42 t ha-1 in 2014-15 and 12.57 t ha-1 in 2015-
16 was recorded from SRC recommended practice. The lowest yield 8.05 t ha-1 in 2014-15 and 7.66
t ha-1 in 2015-16 was recorded from Flat method + Farmer’s practice. Therefore, the farmers of
Faridpur region of Bangladesh are advised to adopt SRC recommended practice with raised bed
method for increasing their annual average onion production
©2017 Agriculture and Environmental Science Academy

Citation of this article: R. Sarker, Ratna, M., Ray, S., Fahim, A.H.F. and Tithi, M.J. (2017). Effect of planting method on onion (Allium
cepa L.) bulb production in Faridpur region of Bangladesh. Archives of Agriculture and Environmental Science, 2(2): 63-67.

INTRODUCTION
having medicinal value also (Kumar et al., 2010;
The onion (Allium cepa L.) belongs to the genus Allium of Bosekeng, 2012). It is one of the most important spices as
the family Alliaceae (Hanelt, 1990). Onion contributes well as vegetable crops of Bangladesh. It ranks first among
significant nutritional value to the human diet and has the spices both in acreage and production (BBS, 2015).
medicinal properties and is primarily consumed for its Faridpur is one of the best onion bulb producing areas in
unique flavor or for its ability to enhance the flavor of Bangladesh about 376651 MT (BBS, 2015). Farmers of
other foods (Randle, 2000). It is rich source of vitamin C Faridpur region cultivate onion in flat method without bed.
and E (Block, 2005; El Assi and Abu-Rayyan, 2007); and They used flood irrigation system to cultivate the crops. In
64 R. Sarker et al. /Arch. Agr. Environ. Sci., 2 (2): 63-67 (2017)

most cases they apply water more than optimum level at 25 and 50 days after transplanting.
which causes water stagnancy in the field that badly Farmer’s practice: In 2014-15 seeds were sown at 30
hampered crop growth and drastically reduced yield. Again November and seedlings were transplanted at 18 January,
onion is a shallow rooted crop which need frequent irriga- in 2015-16 seed were sown at 22 November and seedlings
tion. It was reported that per unit production can be were transplanted at 07 January in flat method maintaining
increased by raised bed methods of cultivation and raised line to line spacing 10 cm and plant to plant spacing 7 cm.
bed can save 20-34% irrigation water, 16-69% planting The fertilizer doses were N46, P45, k30 and S16 kg ha-1.
cost and ensure less human labour (Hossain et al., 2010a). Raised bed: The raised bed (10 cm height + 3 m length +
Raised beds 6–8 inches high will help to improve water 2 m width) was used to prepare the nursery of onion during
drainage in poorly drained soil during rainy periods, such the present study. In case of SRC practice, weeding was
as the winter months (Hayslip et al., 1987). Onion is a done at 25, 50 and 75 days after planting while only two
photo thermo sensitive plant (Jones and Mann, 1963) weeding was done in farmer’s practice Depending on
hence planting time plays an important role in onion maturity, in SRC practice the crop was harvested in 04
cultivation. So, it is important to know about the optimum April, 2015 and 24 March, 2016 respectively. In farmer’s
planting time on onion cultivation to harvest better yield. practice crop was harvested in 13 April, 2015 and 02 April,
Considering the above facts, the present study was under- 2016 respectively. However, the yield in 2015 was
taken to evaluate the effective planting method for onion comparatively low due to attack of high temperature, rain-
production for motivating onion producing farmers in fall and storm immediately before harvest. Data on plant
Faridpur region of Bangladesh. height (cm), leaves per plant, individual bulb weight (g),
bulb length (mm), bulb breadth (mm) and bulb yield (t ha -
MATERIALS AND METHODS 1
) were recorded. The collected data were analyzed and
The experiment was conducted during rabi season 2014-15 mean values were adjusted by DMRT following MSTAT-
and 2015-16 at spices Research Sub-centre, Faridpur. The C software (Gomez, 1984).
experimental field belongs to high land of Low Ganges
River Floodplain (AEZ 12) with clay loam in texture and
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
7.6-8.1 soil pH (FAO, 1998). The experiment was conduct- The yield and yield contributing characters of onion as
ed in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with six affected by planting methods and management practices
replications. The number of treatments were four viz., are presented in Tables 3 and 4.
Raised bed + SRC practice, Raised bed + Farmer’s prac- Spices research centre recommended practice: Spices
tice Flat method + SRC practice, Flat method + Farmer’s Research Centre (SRC) recommended the production
practice. The onion variety BARI Piaz-1 was used as plant- technology of onion, which include Bed type, seed sowing
ing material. The SRC recommended practice consist of time, transplanting time, time and frequency of irrigation,
seed sowing at 2nd week of November + seedlings trans- plant protection system and other management practices. It
planting at the end of December + Spacing (10cm × 10cm) had significant effect on yield and yield contributing
+ Irrigation (4times) + weeding (four at 15, 25, 45 and 60 characters of onion bulb production (Tables 3 and 4). The
DAT) + Fungicide application with Rovral and Ridomil tallest plant (45.05cm in 2014-15 and 54.65 cm in 2015-
Gold (@ 0.5 g l-1 of water at 35, 45, 55 and 65 DAT. + 16), individual bulb weight (23.58 g in 2014-15 and 20.46
Insecticide application ( to control thrips Regent @ 0.5ml/l g in 2015-16), bulb diameter (3.657 mm in 2014-15 and
of water was sprayed at 30, 40, 50 and 60 DAT)) + Ferti- 3.657 mm in 2015-16) was obtained from Raised bed with
lizer doses (cow dung 5 ton ha -1, N120, P54, k75 and S20 kg SRC practice. The highest yield 14.42 t ha-1 in 2014-15
ha-1. On the other hand farmer’s practice consist of seed and 12.57 t ha-1 in 2015-16 was also recorded from SRC
sowing at last week of November in flat seed bed + seed- recommended practice.
ling transplanting at 3rd week of January + Spacing (10cm Earlier researchers also established that sowing date has
× 7cm) + Irrigation (2-3 times) + Weeding (2times) + Fun- significant effect on most of the growth parameters of
gicide application with Rovral, Score and other ineffective onion like plant height (Malik et al., 1999), number of
fungicides at 5-7 days interval + insecticide application leaves plant-1 (Hamma, 2013), foliage fresh weight
with Confidor after thrips / insect appears + Fertilizer (Kandil, 2013), number of flowering stalk, number of
doses (N46, P45, k30 and S16 kg ha-1. The different cultural umbels plant-1, number of capsule umbel-1, number of seed
practices are described below: capsule-1 and seed yield umbel-1 (Malik et al., 1999, Jagtap
SRC recommended practice: In 2014-15 seeds were et al., 2014, Mehri et al., 2015). On the contrary, Nayee et
sown at 15 November and seedlings were transplanted to al. (2009) reported that, growth parameter like number of
raised bed in the main field at 28 December, in 2015-16 leaves plant-1 does not influenced by planting date. In the
seeds were sown at 03 November and seedlings were case of early planting, plant gets enough time and compar-
transplanted to raised bed in the main field at 20 December atively higher temperature, which induces maximum
maintaining plant to plant spacing 10cm and line to line vegetative growth (Rabinowitch, 1990; Ud-Deen, 2008;
spacing 10cm. The fertilizers doses were cow dung 5 ton Hamma, 2013).
ha-1, N120, P54, k75 and S20 kg ha-1. The entire quantity of Farmers recommended practice: Farmers of Faridpur
cow dung, P, K, S and half N were applied during land region have their own way to growing onion. They are
preparation. Remaining N was applied in two equal splits used to growing onion in local method. Sowing time,
 R. Sarker et al. /Arch. Agr. Environ. Sci., 2 (2): 63-67 (2017) 65
transplanting time and other management practices are not ent treatments is present in Tables 5 and 6. In 2014-15 the
same as SRC recommended practices. So in 2014-15 and highest gross return (Tk. 937300 ha-1) and net return (Tk.
2015-16 the shortest plant (34.67 cm and 47 cm), Individu- 850903.25 ha-1) and benefit-cost ratio (10.85) from Raised
al bulb weight (16.85 g and15.58 g) was obtained from bed + SRC recommended practice. Which was closely
Flat method+ Farmer’s practice, respectively. The followed by Flat bed + SRC recommended practice.
minimum number of leaves plant-1 4.80 in 2014-15 was The lowest gross return (Tk. 52357 ha-1), net return (Tk.
found from Raised bed + Farmer’s practice and 6 in 2015- 445250.5 ha-1) and benefit-cost ratio (6.68) were obtained
16 from Flat method+ Farmer’s practice. The lowest yield from Flat bed + Farmers practice. In 2015-16 the highest
8.05 t ha-1 in 2014-15 and 7.66 t ha-1 in 2015-16 was gross return (Tk. 754200 ha-1) and net return (Tk. 667803.5
recorded from Flat method + Farmer’s practice (Tables 3 ha-1) and benefit-cost ratio (8.73) was obtained from
and 4). Late planting often confine required photoperiod Raised bed + SRC practice. Which was closely followed
for vegetative growth and as the temperature increases, by Flat bed + SRC recommended practice. The lowest
plants start bulb formation, which lead poor bulb yield gross return ( TK 459600 ha-1), net return ( Tk.381275.5 ha
-1
(Misra et al., 2014). ) and benefit-cost ratio (5.87) Flat bed + Farmers
Economic analysis: The economic performance of differ- practice.

Table 1. Weather Data at Faridpur from July 2015 to April 2016.

Temperature
Month o Relative Humidity (%) Total rainfall (mm)
Max ( C) Min (oC)
July 2015 32.07 26.03 87.77 539.30
August 2015 32.68 26.73 86.90 312.20
September 2015 33.46 26.22 85.90 213.37
October 2015 32.92 23.89 81.00 79.4
November 2015 30.62 19.06 80.03 000.0
December 2015 25.93 15.15 81.51 006.0
January 2016 25.16 11.86 80.51 001.5
February 2016 30.06 17.78 75.24 15.8
March 2016 34.07 21.05 68.68 24.4
April 2016 36.11 26.23 74.50 57.2

Table 2. Month wise (July 2015 to June 2016) No. of rainfall days and range.

Month Number of rainfall days Range (mm)

July 2015 22 002.1-094.4
August 2015 22 000.2-84.6
September 2015 17 000.2-044.2
October 2015 08 000.6-052.6
November 2015 00 000.0-000.0
December 2015 02 000.8-005.2
January 2016 1 000.0-001.5
February 2016 3 002.6 - 010.0
March 2016 3 001.4 - 021.0
April 2016 3 7.8-33.00

Table 3. Effect of planting method on yield and yield contributing characters of onion bulb production during 2014-15.

Bulb
Plant height Number Individual Bulb length
Treatments diameter Yield (t ha-1)
(cm) of leaves bulb weight (g) (mm)
(mm)
Raised bed+ Farmer’s practice 37.07 c 4.80 b 18.92 b 2.88 3.09 b 8.94 c
Raised bed+ SRC practice 45.05 a 6.68a 23.58 a 3.16 3.65 a 14.42a
Flat method+ Farmer’s practice 34.67 c 5.30 b 16.85 c 2.99 2.91 b 8.05c
Flat method+ SRC practice 41.18 b 6.20 a 20.21 b 3.11 3.19 b 12.13 b

Level of sigf. ** ** ** NS ** **

CV (%) 5.06 7.57 5.83 11.07 6.93 14.26

NS= Non significant, **= 1% level of significant
66 R. Sarker et al. /Arch. Agr. Environ. Sci., 2 (2): 63-67 (2017)

Table 4. Effect of planting method on yield and yield contributing characters of onion bulb production during 2015-16.

Plant height Number Individual Bulb length Bulb diameter Yield

Treatments
(cm) of leaves bulb weight (g) (mm) (mm) (t ha-1)

Raised bed+Farmer’s practice 47.87b 6.333Bc 17.58b 3.043a 3.440a 8.860bc

Raised bed+SRC practice 54.65a 7.083a 20.46a 3.247a 3.503a 12.57a

Flat method+ Faemer’s practice 47.00b 6.000c 15.58c 3.040a 2.950b 7.667c
Flat method+ SRC practice 52.65a 6.533b 18.02b 3.155a 3.335a 10.12b
Level of signif. ** ** ** NS ** **
CV (%) 4.2 5.01 8.43 7.12 6.26 13.84
Table 5. Economic performance of different treatments on bulb production of onion during 2014-2015.

Seed yield Gross return Total cultivation cost Net return Benefit-cost
Treatment
(t ha-1) (Tk. ha-1) (Tk. ha-1) (Tk. ha-1) ratio
Raised bed+ Farmers practice 8.948 581620 79100 502520 7.35

Raised bed + SRC practice 14.42 937300 86396 850903 10.85

Flat bed + Farmer practice 8.055 523575 78324 445250 6.68

Flat bed + Farmer practice 12.13 788450 85362 703087 9.24

Table 6. Economic performance of different treatments on bulb production of onion during 2015-2016.

Seed yield Gross return Total cultivation Net return Benefit-cost

Treatment
(t ha-1) (Tk. ha-1 ) cost (Tk. ha-1 ) (Tk. ha-1) ratio
Raised bed + Farmers practice 8.86 531600 79100 452500 6.72

Raised bed + SRC practice 12.57 754200 86396.75 667803.25 8.73

Flat bed + Farmer practice 7.667 459600 78324.5 381275.5 5.87

Flat bed + Farmer practice 10.12 607200 85362.75 521837.25 7.11

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