Onion detopping machine - an emerging horticultural enterprising

Onion is the one of the important vegetable crops cultivated in India. Multiplier type onion is one among the three major types of onions. Tamil Nadu accounts for five per cent of country’s area under onion and more than 70 per cent of the area is cultivated by small onion (Allium cepa var. aggregatum). Around 90 per cent of country’s multiplier onion is produced from Tamil Nadu. Detopping is one of the steps in the on-farm processing carried out after harvest. Presently this is done manually by farm women. Individual onions are picked and detopping is done by using sickle. This operation is time consuming and highly drudgery in nature. An Onion detopping machine to remove the foliage after harvest was designed and developed in the present study. This machine has a capacity of 370 kg/h against 30 kg/h manual practice and works with an efficiency of 98%. The unique design of the detopper is that it is suitable for all sizes of onions. Also, the cluster is intact after detopping, which is very important requirement. This multiplier type onion is grown in Nagamangala (Tk), Mandya (Dt.) of Karnataka State. Two farmers of this area have installed this machine and running a successful enterprising. Cost involved in using this machine is Rs. 200 per quintal against Rs. 500 per quintal by manual detopping. Owing to the higher capacity by mechanization, the farmers will be able to process the higher volume of produce within a short span of time. Hence, this will facilitate the farmers to sell the produce, get good market price and earn higher returns.