Special support price to growers on the lines of foodgrains is also being contemplated. This would be the first technology mission for horticulture crops in the country.

The Union agriculture ministry is busy finalising the draft proposal on the technology mission for approval by the finance ministry and subsequently by the Cabinet. The Planning Commission is supplying the required inputs for framing the draft proposal. The draft proposal on technology mission for integrated development of horticulture in northeastern region is also likely to be finalised at an outlay of Rs 350 crore.

The centre is planning to boost onion production and productivity yield per hectare in the country through the proposed technology mission and is hopeful that the situation of possible short supply of onions can be averted in the near future through this process.

The average yield of onions is atpresent 10 tonne per hectare and this can be increased to 30 tonne per hectare. Out of the total 53,35,447 hectare area under vegetable cultivation, onions covers a mere 7.41 per cent of the area.

Onions have a share of meagre 5.70 per cent of total vegetable production in the country. Major onion producing states are Maharashtra, Bihar, Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.

The mechanism for ensuring minimum support price to growers, adequate marketing infrastructure will also be introduced for the first time through this mission besides attempts to increase the area coverage under the crop.Apart from the agriculture ministry, Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR), Planning Commission, state agricultural universities, ministries of food, food processing, rural areas and employment and finance are likely to be involved in the technology mission.

The horticulture commissioner, HP Singh stated that in the current kharif season onion production will be about15 lakh tonnes. There was a delay in harvesting due to rains in onion-growing states in the last leg of the monsoon.

There was some damage to crops, but the damage is not so severe as in the previous year when long periods of intermitant rains damaged the onions in the fields. As a result, onion production in the 1997-98 was only 39 lakh tonne, 4 lakh tonne lower than the previous year.

Singh stated that considering the incremental growth in population leading to increased consumption of onions, the shortfall of only 4 lakh tonne in production should not cause such a scarcity problem in the country and force us to import onions for the first time in 20 years.

He said that there must be some other factors causing this level of scarcity and unwarranted price rise.

The export of onions was also not the cause for the scarcity in domestic markets as so far, only one lakh tonne of onions were exported as against an average of 5 lakh tonnes every year.

In the previous year onion exports declined to 4 lakhtonnes. Moreover, onion exports have already slowed down due to high domestic prices.

India's potential export markets are Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Bangladesh.He said that as the rains have receded, there are chances of fresh bulk arrivals of harvested kharif onions mid-this month and the prices will soften.

It may be recalled that a proposal to import a meagre quantity of 10,000 tonne of onions through Nafed is still pending before the Cabinet Committee for approval.

SP Ghosh, ICAR deputy director-general (horticulture), stated that the thrust of the current year's programme will be to encourage onion cultivation in non-traditional areas in Assam, West Bengal and Bihar.

These rainfed areas can go for large area coverage for onions.He said already ICAR has successfully initiated cultivation of new varieties of onions like N-53, Agri Found (dark race) and Arka Kalyan in western UP, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan in the kharif season.

He said apart from these ICAR has developed some hybrid varieties ofonions which will be released for commercial use after selecting suitable areas for their cultivation. Other onion varieties developed are Arka Niketan, Pusa Madhvi, Pusa Ratnar and Pusa Red among the red varieties of onions. Amongst the white varieties developed so far are, Pusa white flat and Pusa white round. Amongst the varieties developed for exports are the red Arka Bindhu and the yellow varieties like, F1 Hybrid-Arka Pitamber and Arka Kirtiman. Varieties resistant to purple blotch like Arka Nihar and Kalyan has also been developed.

The National Research Centre for Onion and Garlic (NRCOG), Rajgurunagar, Pune, has already planned to develop varieties and hybrids resistant to purple blotch, stemphyllium blight and basal rot. It has also planned to develop varieties and hybrids suitable for late kharif season and male sterile lines alongwith short day adapted maintainer for exploitation of heterosis on a commercial basis. Yellow varieties and hybrids with good storage characteristics and suitable forexport are also to be developed.

NRCOG has suggested use of biological approach for resistance breeding and heterosis breeding. It is also working on standardisation of fertigation and direct seed-sowing techniques, development of integrated pest management and intensification of research on-seed technology. NRCOG is also concentrating on standardisation of post-harvest techniques for reducing storage and transport losses including improvement in storage structures, use of irradiation techniques on commercial basis and improvement on packing.

The post-harvest losses of onions ranges between 16 and 35 per cent. The transport and storage life expectancy of onions range between three and to five weeks. The temperature required for storage is between zero and two degree centigrades with relative humidity ranging between 60 and 75 per cent.