Final SPH -JHS Coverpage 17-1 Jan 2022 single 199 J. Hortl. Sci. Vol. 17(1) : 199-203, 2022 This is an open access article d istributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommer cial-ShareAl ike 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. Original Research Paper INTRODUCTION Onion (Allium cepa L.) is one of the most important commercial vegetable crops widely cultivated in India. India ranks 2nd in world’s onion production after China, contributing 21% of world’s onion requirement. In India, an area of 12.85 lakh ha is under onion cultivation with a production of 232.62 lakh MT of onions dur ing 2018 (NHB, 2019) amounting to 12.50 % of area under vegetable cultivation and 12.62 % of vegetable production. Indian onion is broadly classified into three types viz. , common onion, sma ll common onion and multiplier onion (Fig. 1). Many varieties have been develop ed under ea c h typ e of onion, ha ving different traits suitable for different agro climatic zones, seasons, purposes, pest and diseases resistant etc. There are about 27 common onion varieties, two s ma ll c ommon onion va r ieties a nd thr ee multiplier onion varieties commercially available in India (NHRDF). The type and variety has also stake holder preference based on its pungency, which vary widely among types. All the a bove mentioned three types of onion have comprehensible morphological difference among them. Primarily common and small common onions are single bulbs but vary largely in size. The broad characteristics of the above three types of onion are presented in Table 1. Among the above three types of onion, multiplier onion is known for its pungency and flavour which is commonly grown in Tamil Nadu. About 35,000 ha area is under multiplier onion cultivation in India which is about 2.7 % of area under onion production. About 3,32,500 MT of multiplier onion is being produced in India which is 1.5 % of onion production. Around 90% of country’s multiplier onion is produced fr om Ta mil Nadu a nd Andhr a Pr a desh, South Karnataka, parts of Orissa, Kerala contribute for the remaining portion. In Tamil Nadu multiplier onion is Onion detopping machine - an emerging horticultural enterprising Rathinakumari A.C.* and Senthil Kumaran G. ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru – 560 089, Karnataka. India *Corresponding author E-mail : CAROLINA.KUMARI@icar.gov.in ABSTRACT 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. Keywords: Aggregatum onion, enterprising, mechanization, onion detopper and multiplier onion 200 Rathinakumari and Senthil Kumaran J. Hortl. Sci. Vol. 17(1) : 199-203, 2022 cultivated in an area of 30,255 ha with a production of 2,86,000 MT (www.tn.gov.in). Detopping is one of the on-farm processing operations carried out after harvesting and it is removing of the leaves from the onion. Onion is harvested when 50% tops begin to collapse on the ground but before the foliage dries down completely (Anon, 2011). After digging, the onion is field-cured for 3-5 days, cut at the necks for separation of onion from the tops, graded, shed-cured and stored. Separation of onion bulbs from tops is called de-topping and women labourers are engaged for this operation. Individual onion is de-topped by sickle thus makes it highly drudgery that requires 12.5 woman-hours/t and time consuming (Anon, 2017.). The average weight of each clump of multiplier onion is about 60 g, thus one kg of onion contain about 15 individual onions. When huge quantity of onion needs to be harvested and processed, it needs mechanization. Onion detopping machine was designed and developed at ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru. This machine has been demonstrated widely at farmers’ a b c Fig. 1. Types of onion grown in India (a. Common onion b. Small Common onion c. Multiplier onion) field. This pa per discusses the entr epreneurial opportunities of this machine. MATERIALS AND METHODS Process of onion detopping The matured onion is harvested and left in the field for 3-5 days for field curing. Afterwards they are detopped and stored or without detopping stored in a well-ventilated storage structures or facilities. The either second category is detopped and sold to trader based on market demand. Onion detopping machine The prototype onion de-topper consists of i) Feeding chute for feeding onion crop, ii) de-topping unit, iii) collection chutes for the de-topped onion bulbs and tops, iv) main frame and v) power transmission system (Fig. 2). The feeding chute is for feeding of the onion crop to the onion de-topping unit. This was fabricated out of MS sheet of 1. 5 mm thickness sheet a nd ha d dimensions of 700 mm x 400 mm X 200 mm (L x W Table 1. Broad characteristic of Indian types of onion S.No. Type of onion Shape Size Colour TSS Pungency Storability 1. Common global big in size Ranges 12° - 10.07- Very onion round in ( 40-60 from light 14° 13.0µmol/g good to shape mm dia.) to dark red brix FW medium 2. Common flattish Small in Scarlet 16°-18° 10.27 Good small onion round in ( 25 red in brix µmol/ (Bengaluru shape – 35 mm colour g FW rose onion) size dia 3. Multiplier 5-6 20 - 25 Red 8°-18° 10.13 Very onion bulblets mm in brix µmol/g good (sambar clump in in colour FW onion) shape size Source: Saraswathi et al. (2017); Sabina Islam et al. (2019). 201 Onion detopping machine x H). The de-topping unit is the key component of the de-topping machine which should detop the onion tops efficiently without damaging the onion bulbs. The de- topping unit consists of i) set of de-topping rollers, ii) main frame and iii) power transmission system. The de-topping unit is a set of rollers comprising one roller having cutting edge along its length and the other one a plain roller. The cutting roller is fabricated out of M.S. square shaft having 35 mm cross section and 600 mm length. The plain roller is a G.I. Pipe having 600 mm length, 50 mm diameter and 3 mm thickness. Four such set of rollers were fabricated and mounted on a main frame. A clearance of 2 mm is provided between the rollers. The frame is fabricated out of M.S angle section of 40x40x5 mm having 1085 mm length and 690 mm width. The rollers were driven by sprocket and chain system and were counter rotated. Collection chute was fabricated out of M.S sheet of 1 mm thickness having trapezoidal shape for directing the de-topped onion bulbs into the crates. The collection chute had a dimension of 530 mm width at the upper end, 150 mm at the lower end, 680 mm length and 200 mm height. This was fitted to the main frame at angle of 740 in order to have the free fall of the de-topped onion bulbs. A tray to collect the detopped onion leaves was fabricated and fitted below the rollers. The main frame of the machine was fabricated out of M.S. angle section of 40×40×5 mm. The feeding chute, de-topping unit, collection chute for de-topped onion bulbs, collection tray for onion tops, power transmission systems and electric motor were fitted to the main frame. A three phase, 1440 rpm, 2 hp electric motor was mounted on the main frame with necessary supports and gearbox of 1:30 reduction was fitted to the motor. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Operation details The cured onion crop was fed by the feeding conveyor to the de-topping unit. Due to counter rotating of the plain and cutting rollers, the onion tops were drawn in between the rollers and made an orientation of tops down position. The sharp edges of the shearing rollers further de-tops the onion tops and the onion tops were dropped down. Due to plurality of the rollers, the rollers conveyed the de-topped onion bulbs further for delivery. The plurality of rollers also ensured higher chances for de-topping the onion tops before the onion crop reaches the delivery. The de-topped onion tops were collected in the collection tray provided below the onion de-topping unit and de-topped onion bulbs wer e collected in cr ates which wer e guided by collection chute. The performance parameters of onion detopping machine is presented in the Table 2. Fig. 2. Diagram of onion detopping machine all dimensions in mm Sl.No. Performance parameters 1. De-topping efficiency (%) 95.20 ± 1.42 2. Effectiveness of de-topping (%) 97.80 ± 0.00 3. Per cent damage (%) 2.30 ± 0.29 4. Per cent non-detopped onion (%) 2.50±0.25 5. Capacity (kg/h) 372.88 ± 7.22 6. Cost Economics 37 % saving against conventional method Table 2. Performance parameters of onion de-topping machine The machine has been widely demonstrated in farmers’ field, National Exhibitions and Farmers’ Fairs. Adoption of onion detopping machine as an enterprise Na ga ma nga la is a Ta luk in Ma dhya (Dt. ) of Karnataka State located at 12.82° N 76.76° E and 772 m elevation. This is multiplier onion growing cluster in Karnataka. About 2000 ha area in this Taluk produces multiplier onion with a production of about 17,000 MT. Planting is done during January and J. Hortl. Sci. Vol. 17(1) : 199-203, 2022 202 Fig. 3. Multiplier Onion storge matured onion is harvested during March and April. The harvested onion along with top is bundled, and are stored in a well-ventilated facilities for a period of six months (Fig. 3). These kind of structures are also funded by Government of Karnataka. The stored onion is detopped and supplied to the market as per market demand. During lean season, the stored onion is detopped manually by the farm women and supplied to the market. However, during peak demand period, when the farmers’ desired to get better returns, the supply gets hampered due to limited detopping capacity in the existing manual practice and also availability of resources. It is also to be noted that towards the end of storage period, stored onions start sprouting. Hence, all the stored onion need to be detopped and supplied to the market. The manual detopping capacity is about 20 - 30 kg/h. One entrepreneur charged half of the cost meant for manual detopping and yet could gain a profit. While another entrepreneur changed Rs.200 per quintal & while manual stopping costs Rs. 500 per quintal. He obtained B: C ratio of 2.01:1 for 3 years. Hence, farmers are able to take the advantage of market price and sell the produce when the price is at its peak. Due to this farmers are benfitted in both ways i.e cost involved in detopping practice and peak market rate (Fig. 4). This machine also ensured timeliness of operation thus helped in tapping higher returns during peak market demand period. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors express their heartfelt gratitude to The Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru for providing facility and extend his support to carry out this project. Fig. 4. ICAR-IIHR onion detopping machine installed at Nagamangala as entreprise Rathinakumari and Senthil Kumaran J. Hortl. Sci. Vol. 17(1) : 199-203, 2022 203 REFERENCES Anon, 2011. Onion Growing Technology, Krishi D ha r s ha n i, M a ha t ma P hu l e K r is hi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, Maharashtra. Page No. 118. Anon, 2017. Proceedings of Brain storming Session on Challenges of mechanization in Onion and G a r lic , ( E dit or s : As hwini P. Benke, Shailendra S. Gadge, Yogesh Bhagat, Vijay Mahajan, Major Singh) 2nd December, 2017, Pune: 5-7. H or t ic u lt u r a l St a t is t ic s a t a G la nc e 2 0 1 9 . Horticulture Statistics Division, Department of Agr ic ultur e, Cooper a t ion & Fa r mer s Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India. 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Vol. 17(1) : 199-203, 2022 (Received: 06.04.2021; Revised: 30.01.2022; Accepted: 05.07.2022) 00 A Final SPH -JHS Coverpage First 2 pages.pdf 00 Content and in this issue.pdf 01 Mohan Kumar G N.pdf 02 Meera Pandey.pdf 03 Biradar C.pdf 04 Varalakshmi B.pdf 05 Vijayakumari N.pdf 06 Barik S.pdf 07 Sajid M B.pdf 08 Ranga D.pdf 09 Usha S.pdf 10 Manisha.pdf 11 Amulya R N.pdf 12 Akshatha H J.pdf 13 Adak T.pdf 14 Sujatha S.pdf 15 Gowda P P.pdf 16 Subba S.pdf 17 Dhayalan V.pdf 19 Ahmed S.pdf 20 Vishwakarma P K.pdf 21 Deep Lata.pdf 22 Udaykumar K P.pdf 23 Nayaka V S K.pdf 24 Sahel N A.pdf 25 Bayogan E R V.pdf 26 Rathinakumari A C.pdf 27 Yella Swami C.pdf 28 Saidulu Y.pdf 29 Sindhu S.pdf 30 Neeraj.pdf 31 Sivaranjani R.pdf 32 Rashied Tetteh.pdf 34 Sangeetha G.pdf 35 Shareefa M.pdf 36 Last Pages.pdf