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© 2018 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF ONION (Allium Cepa L.) VARIETIES AT 
BENATSEMAY WOREDA OF SOUTH OMO ZONE, ETHIOPIA   

 

 

Misgana Mitiku1+ 
Awoke Tadesse2 

 

1Department of plant pathology, Southern Agricultural Research Institute, 
Jinka Agricultural Research Center, Jinka, Ethiopia 

 
2Department of Agronomy, Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Jinka 
Agricultural Research Center, Jinka, Ethiopia 

 

 
(+ Corresponding author) 

 ABSTRACT 
 
Article History 
Received: 15 August 2017 
Revised: 16 November 2017 
Accepted: 30 November 2017 
Published: 13 December 2017 
 
 

Keywords 
Onion 
Onion productivity 
Onion varieties 
Research field evaluation 
Adaptation 
Yield performance 
Benatsemay woreda. 

 
Onion varieties were evaluated for adaptability to the climatic conditions in Benatsemay 
woreda. Three varieties of onion were planted under a complete randomized block 
design experiment with three replications at farmer’s field at Benatsemay woreda. Yield 
and yield component data like; plant height, number of leaves, bulb size and bulb yield 
of each varieties were collected. Bulb of all onion varieties were harvested at their 
maturity stage (90% tops down) and then weighted. SAS were used for data analysis. 
The result indicated that, the three varieties namely; Adama red, Nasick red and local 
contribute similarly to total yield, plant height, number of leaves and bulb size. The 
variety local was the best variety as it produced the highest bulb yield of 7.0033kg/plot 
numerically. Based on the result, we advise farmers to use local variety followed by 
Nasick red and Adama red therefore, government should promote these onion varieties 
for cultivation in Benatsemay woreda especially for Beneta kebele and its vicinity. 
Concerning body has to work together to ensure the availability of the seed of Local 
and Nasick red varieties. So that, onion producer can be interested for accepting these 
varieties for large scale production. The effects of different agricultural practices on 
yield of onion have to be considered for future investigation. 
 

Contribution/Originality: This study is one of very few studies which have investigated the potential of 

different onion varieties to increase the productivity and income of onion producer in the studied area and its 

vicinity.  

 

1. INTRODUCTION 

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is an important crop worldwide [1]. It is one of the oldest bulb vegetables in continuous 

cultivation dating back to at least 4000 BC [2, 3]. It is native of South Asia or Mediterranean region. It is 

important in the daily Ethiopian diet [4]. All parts are edible, but the bulbs and the lower stems sections are the 

most popular as vegetables in stews. It is recently introduced crop and rapidly becoming popular among producers 

and consumers. It is widely produced by small farmers and commercial growers throughout the year for local use 

and export market [5].  

Onion is appreciated for its distinct pungency and flavoring varieties of dishes, sauces, soup, sandwiches, snacks 

as onion rings etc. It contain 2.0 g protein, 70 mg calcium and 53 mg phosphorus as nutritional composition [6]. It 

also contains the vitamins thiamine, riboflavin and niacin and is used for its medicinal value. [7]. It also contain a 

phytochemical called quercetin, which is effective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, an anticancer, and 

Current Research in Agricultural Sciences 
2018 Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 1-5 
ISSN(e): 2312-6418 
ISSN(p): 2313-3716 
DOI: 10.18488/journal.68.2018.51.1.5 
© 2018 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

 
 
 

 
 

 
 

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Current Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2018, 5(1): 1-5 

 

 
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© 2018 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

has promise to be an antioxidant [8]. It is common over the local shallot because of its high yield potential per unit 

area, availability of desirable cultivars for various uses, ease of propagation by seed, high domestic(bulb and seed) 

and export(bulb, cut flowers) markets in fresh and processed forms [9].  

Onion pays too considerably to the national economy, apart from overcoming local demands. Products like 

bulbs and cut flowers are exported to different countries of the world. With the increasing irrigated agriculture in 

the country, there is a unlimited potential for extensive onion seed and dry bulb production in the different 

production belts of the country [4]. It needs well-drained sandy loam with a high content of organic matter. The 

optimum altitude range for onion production is between 700 and 2200 m.a.s.l and the optimum growing 

temperature is between 15 and 23 ºC [10]. The total area under production during 2012/13 cropping season, 

reaches over 21,865.37 hectares and the production is estimated to be over 2,191,886.02 quintals [11]. 

 Though, the zone is endowed with stated agro-ecologies and has valuable resource for onion production, there 

are large number of production obstacles which limits the large production by farmers. From those production 

barriers low yields because of non-optimal agronomic practices, unavailability and high cost of seed, diseases and 

insect pests, lack of awareness about improved varieties and improved production technologies. So, the objective of 

the experiment was to evaluate the performance of improved onion varieties and to select the high yielding 

variety/ies from the tested varieties.  

 

2. MATERIAL AND METHOD 

2.1. Description of the Study Area 

The experiment was conducted at Benatsemay woreda Beneta kebele of South Omo zone SNNPR Ethiopia. It is 

located at 508 km and 42km away from the administrative town of Southern Nation Nationalities and People 

Regional State and the administrative town of the zone respectively. The trial field is situated at 5o15’N latitude, 

36o38E longitude and 1400m above sea level with annual average rain fall and temperature of 1050 mm and 21.8oc 

respectively. 

 

2.2. Design and Procedures 

The experiment was conducting using two improved onion varieties and one local check (Ferensay). These 

varieties were planted at recommended seed rate of 4kg/ha on March, 2014. A randomized complete block design 

(RCBD) with three replications was used. Seeds of three onion varieties namely: Adama red, Nasick red and local 

(Ferensay) were sown on seed bed. At four leaves stage or pencil thickness, seedlings were transplanted on plot of 

3.2 m x3.2 m. Each plot consists of eight rows with 3.2 meter long. Row to row and plant to plant spacing was 

40cm and 20cm respectively. Before transplanting, full dose of DAP and half of Urea which is 75kg/ha were applied 

before planting and the remaining half of urea (75kg/ha) was applied 45 days after transplanting. Recommended 

management was applied during growing period. But, no farm chemical was applied as all the varieties were 

growing healthy and no pest and diseases problem was observed. All varieties were harvested at their maturity 

stage (90% tops down). The harvested bulb were left to dry  under shade for four days then the leaves were 

removed to get the dry bulb of onion.  

The yield and yield component data were analyzed using analysis of variance; SAS program version 

9.1.Treatment means were separated using Duncan Least Significant Difference (LSD).  

  



Current Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2018, 5(1): 1-5 

 

 
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© 2018 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

 
Fig-1. Field preparation, transplanting of onion seedlings and harvested onion bulb (Taken from the field trial) 

 

3. RESULT AND DISCUSSION 

Statistical analysis was conducted to see the treatments were significantly differ or not for their yield and yield 

component. The results of their total bulb yield, plant height, number of leaves and bulb size were showed in Table 

1 and Table 2 respectively. Table 1 and table 2 reveals that total bulb yield, plant height, number of leaves and bulb 

size of three onion varieties are not significantly differ (p < .05).Therefore, from the result we can concluded that 

the three varieties, namely; Adama red, Nasick red and Local contribute similarly to yield and yield component data. 

Also the total bulb yield, plant height, number of leaves and bulb size does not seem to be impacted by the layout of 

experiment in the field and its condition. It implies that onion varieties do not responded to the climatic conditions 

of Benatsemay woreda and reflected none significant to their productivity performance. These results are not in line 

with the findings of [12, 13].  

The person correlation coefficient analysis revealed that, number of leaves has positive and significant 

correlation with plant height but, it didn’t correlate with bulb size and total bulb yield as indicated in (table3).But 

bulb size has positive and non-significant correlation with plant height and number of leaves but, it doesn’t have 

correlation with total bulb yield (Table3).While bulb yield has positive non-significant correlation with plant 

height, number of leaves and bulb size. 

 
Table-1. Significances of mean square values for 4 agronomic traits for 2 improved onion varieties and one local check. 

Source of variation DF PH.(cm) NL BS BY 

Replication 2 14.1122ns 1.44284ns 0.06574ns 0.64858ns 
Treatment 2 28.9985ns 1.33618ns 0.11001ns 0.30528ns 
Error 4 24.5780 1.72711 2.45269 3.92216 
Cv  7.79 14.03 13.56 29.37 

                   Note: PH=plant height in cm, NL=number of leaves, BS=bulb size in cm, BY=bulb yield and ns=no significant difference 

 
Table-2. Mean values of Plant height, Number of leaves, Bulb size and bulb yield for the tested varieties. 

Treatments PH(cm) NL BS (cm) BY(kg/plot) 

Local 62.330A 8.720A 11.660A 7.0033A 
Adama red 61.443A 9.333A 11.330A 6.3867A 
Nasick red 67.217A 10.053A 11.663A 6.8367A 
Critical Value for Comparison 11.239 2.9792 3.5503 4.4896 

                    Note: There are no significant pairwise differences among the means. Means with the same letter are not significantly different 

  

 

 
 
 
 
 
 



Current Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2018, 5(1): 1-5 

 

 
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© 2018 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

                                                                       Table-3. Pearson Correlations Analysis 

 Character    PH         NL     BS BY 

PH 1.0000    
NL 0.0532 1.0000   
BS 0.3621 0.5128 1.0000  
BY 0.4780 0.4268 0.9295 1.0000 

                                   Note: PH=plant height, NL=number of leaves, BS=bulb size and BY=bulb yield 

 

4. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 

The results showed that, all treatments were not significantly different from each other for their bulb yield but, 

the variety local was the best variety as it produce highest bulb yield of 7.00kg/plot or 9.11 tons/ha numerically. 

Based on the result, we advise farmers to use local variety followed by Nasick red and Adama red. Observing the 

numerical value of the yield, it can be concluded that Local is be the best onion variety followed by Nasick red 

which can improve onion production in Benatsemay woreda (Beneta kebele) and its vicinity; therefore should be 

promoted for cultivation in Benatsemay woreda (Beneta kebele) and its vicinity of South Omo zone of Southern 

Nations Nationality and People Regional state of Ethiopia. Concerning bodies has to work together to create 

effective platform for development and evaluation of new onion production technologies. Agronomic practices like 

planting date can be a limiting factor in production and productivity of onion varieties. So, effects of different 

agronomic practices on yield of onion in the target have to be considered for future investigation. 

 

Funding: The authors would like to thank SARI (Southern Agricultural Research Institute) for financial 
support. 
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. 
Contributors/Acknowledgement: Both authors would like to thank SARI and JARC for their contribution 
for the success of this work. 

 

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