ONION FARMING IN KENYA

Small scale onion farming in Kenya is gaining popularity. It is also becoming popular because it is
affordable to start and its returns are high

Onion farming in Kenya can be done in greenhouses and open gardens. The most commonly used
onion is the bulb onion. It is locally consumed and available from roadside sellers to supermarkets.

Onion Farming in Kenya – Ecological Requirements

Topology: - The land should be more or less flat and have access to irrigation water.

Soil Type: - The soil should be light and well-draining. It must be free of aggressive weeds like couch
grass and should also be in full sun. The soil should be tested to determine soil fertility
Soil pH: - Onions need a pH of 6 to 6.8. If the pH is below 6, apply calcific lime at the rate
recommended by your soil test results.

Seed Rate: - An acre of land will need about 1kg of seeds. Mix them with the same amount of sand.
Fill the furrows evenly with the sand-seed mix.

Onion Farming in Kenya – High Yielding Varieties

High yielding varieties in Kenya today include:-

 Jambar F1

 Red Pinoy F1

 Red Comet F1

 Red passion F1

Onion Farming in Kenya – Land Preparation

Prepare the land about a month before and incorporate about three tonnes of chicken manure.
Loosen the soil deeply and prepare the land to a fine tilth.

Onion Farming in Kenya – Nursery Preparation

Start with a small seedbed, which can either be raised if the water is not a problem or sunk to
capture more water. Prepare it 4ft wide with eight rows 10 to 15cm apart. Make 1cm deep furrows
along the rows.

Onion Farming in Kenya – Transplanting

Transplant when your seedlings have gained the size of a pencil and show four to five leaves. Prior to
transplanting, water the seedbeds heavily until they are saturated to avoid damage to the seedlings.
To help your seedlings recover quickly once transplantation, prepare a liquid fertilizer from comfrey
leaves, which contain Vitamin B12. Mix it with some soil and fresh manure until it forms a sort of
sludge.
Pull up your seedlings from the wet seedbed carefully or use a trowel. Dip them in the manure-
comfrey mix so that the roots are covered in it. Bunch about 50 seedlings together and cut off 50
percent of the green tops. Transport them to the field and transplant as soon as possible.

Onion Farming in Kenya: Planting

You can grow onions using transplants, seeds or sets. Transplants are seedlings that usually are
started in the growing season; they usually form good bulbs within a short time 60 days or less.

Sets are bulbs that are not yet mature from the previous season. They are very easy to plant, harvest
and are quite resistant to diseases. The only downside they have is they may bolt (shoot up a flower
stalk prematurely)

If you plant onion sets, the sets may be identified only as white, red, or yellow, rather than by variety
name. Most growers prefer white sets for green onions. Growing onions from seed offer one a wide
variety of choice. The only disadvantage is that you have to wait up to 5 months for the onions to
mature.

Irrigate the field well the day before transplanting and plant in rows one foot apart and leave 8cm
space between plants within the row. Since planting onions too closely reduces the bulb size.

Onion Farming in Kenya: Watering

In onion farming in Kenya where climatic conditions vary it is important to consider watering. Very
dry conditions cause bulbs to split. It is a good practice to water them moderately weekly. Onions do
not do well with weeds and it is a good practice to do the weeding.

You can use a sprinkler or pipe to water your onions. A good time to water them is early in the
morning. If you water them in the heat of the day a lot of water is lost to evaporation. A good
practice when watering the onions is to avoid watering them from above in the evening as moisture
settling on leaves easily cause diseases.
 Onion Farming in Kenya

Onion Farming in Kenya – Pests and Fungal Diseases

Onion thrips are usually common in onions. The leaves will turn silverish and dry. Boil a cup of
chopped rhubarb leaves in six cups of water. Leave to cool, add some liquid soap, strain, and spray.
But be careful, this concoction is poisonous.

If mildew or other fungal diseases become a problem, spray with copper. On soils with boron
deficiency, a foliar feed with 20g boric acid per acre is necessary. Sulphur or calcium deficiencies also
need to be addressed if shown by a soil test.

Onion Farming in Kenya: Harvesting

Onions are harvested when the tops turn down and start to dry. Short day varieties, however, don’t
mature uniformly so they are usually lifted when 50 percent of the tops are down and have dried.

Bunch the onions together and hang them up in an airy space for about a week until all the outer
leaves are nicely dried and the bulbs can be easily be pulled from the bunches.

Onion Farming in Kenya – Onion Farming in Summary

To get the best results with onions you need to start them in a Nursery. Here is how to do this;

1. Make a raised nursery bed 1 meter wide and any desired length.

2. Apply well-decomposed manure at a rate of 15kg per square meter.

3. Mix and Apply DAP fertilizer at a rate of 20 grams per meter square

4. Make shallow furrows 15 cm apart. Mix the seeds with dry ash, sand or soil at a ratio of 1:3
to help spread the small seeds.
 5. Plant the seeds and cover lightly with soil and apply mulches ( Grass or Polythene cover
spread over the soil on the nursery bed)

6. After planting irrigate the nursery bed liberally for the first 10 days and continue watering
regularly.

7. Germination of seeds will take about 7-10 days after which the mulches are removed and
used to make a shade above the tender plants which have not fully developed.

8. Transplanting of the seedlings takes place 6 weeks after planting seeds in the nursery.
Transplant when the seedlings have pencil thick base and a height of approximately 15cm.

9. Seedlings should have 3 to 5 well-formed leaves at transplanting time. Two weeks before
transplanting reduce the shade to improve seedling survival rate in the field.

10. It takes about 4 months for onions to mature

Onion farming in Kenya can be done in greenhouses and open gardens.

Onion Farming in Kenya – Factors to consider before planting

 Market availability,

 Price of the onions

 Variety of the plant.

Onion Farming in Kenya – Video

Onion Farming in Kenya – News

Onion Farming in Kenya – A to Z

Source: Nation

Before you get tempted to engage in onion farming, do your homework well and learn from the
masters who are already in the agribusiness. However, here is information to give you a head start.

The land should be more or less flat and have access to irrigation water. The soil should be light and
well-draining. It must be free of aggressive weeds like couch grass and should also be in full sun.

Have the soil tested to make informed decisions on your soil fertility management decisions. Onions
need a pH of 6 to 6.8. If the pH is below 6, apply calcific lime at the rate recommended by your soil
test results.

Prepare the land about a month before and incorporate about three tones of chicken manure.
Loosen the soil deeply and prepare the land to a fine tilth.

Start with a small seedbed, which can either be raised if the water is not a problem or sunk to
capture more water. Prepare it 4ft wide with eight rows 10 to 15cm apart. Make 1cm deep furrows
along the rows.
Per acre, you will need about 1kg of seeds. Mix them with the same amount of sand. Fill the furrows
evenly with the sand-seed mix.

Onion Farming in Kenya – Keep Watering

Cover with high quality fine compost and water thoroughly. Keep watering several times per day
until the rows of onions have emerged. The seedlings remain in the seedbed for eight to 10 weeks
and daily watering is important.

After four weeks, apply liquid fertilizer made from stinging nettle. As soon as seedlings have
emerged, keep applying a layer of compost as a mulch to suppress weeds, and keep the soil moist
and protected from heavy rains.

Onions are generally long-day plants, which means, they need days with more than 12 hours of
daylight. Therefore, only varieties with lower day-length needs can be grown in Kenya.

Popular varieties are Jambar F1 (for size and high yield) or Red Passion F1, Bombay Red and Red
Pinoy (they have a lower yield but are in high demand at the market and fetch a high price than
Jambar F1).

Onions need around four months to mature. The last three weeks before harvest, the weather
should be absolutely rain-free. So plan to start your nursery according to your dry season and count
back four-and-a-half months. To harvest end of December, start your seedbeds mid-August.

Transplant when your seedlings have gained the size of a pencil and show four to five leaves. Prior to
transplanting, water the seedbeds heavily until they are saturated to avoid damage to the seedlings.

To help your seedlings recover quickly after transplanting, prepare a liquid fertilizer from comfrey
leaves, which contain Vitamin B12. Mix it with some soil and fresh cow manure until it forms a kind
of sludge.

Pull up your seedlings from the wet seedbed carefully. Dip them in the manure-comfrey mix so that
the roots are covered in it. Bunch about 50 seedlings together and cut off 50% of the green tops.
Transport them to the field and transplant as soon as possible. You will end up with about 200,000
seedlings per acre.

Irrigate the field well the day before transplanting and plant in rows one foot apart and leave 8cm
space between plants within the row. If you plant onions too closely, bulb size will reduce.

Ideally, you should fix a drip irrigation system with 4cm emitter spacing between the rows. Irrigation
is needed at a rate of 3 to 5mm per day, but you need to monitor to avoid waterlogging. The field
should then be covered with plastic mulching between the rows to avoid moisture losses and to
suppress weeds.

If possible, overhead watering should be avoided as it promotes fungal diseases. If no plastic mulch
is used, mulching should be done with organic matter and weeds need to be removed regularly by
pulling up by hand in the rows and careful hoeing between the rows. Hoeing will also break the soil’s
surface and help prevent moisture losses. But care should be taken not to damage the onions.
In case your onions get affected by rust, use this homemade remedy: Soak 1kg of pounded pawpaw
leaves in a liter of water for six hours. Strain it through a cloth and add two tablespoons of liquid
soap. Add five liters of water and spray every three days in the later afternoon.

Onion Farming in Kenya – Fungal Diseases

Onion thrips might be a problem. The leaves will turn silverish and dry. Boil a cup of chopped
rhubarb leaves in six cups of water. Leave to cool, add some liquid soap, strain, and spray. But be
careful, this concoction is poisonous.

If mildew or other fungal diseases become a problem, spray with copper. On soils with boron
deficiency, a foliar feed with 20g boric acid per acre is necessary. Sulphur or calcium deficiencies also
need to be addressed if shown by a soil test.

Usually, onions are harvested when the tops turn down and start to dry. Short day varieties,
however, don’t mature uniformly so they are usually lifted when 50 percent of the tops are down
and have dried.

Bunch the onions together and hang them up in an airy space for about a week until all the outer
leaves are nicely dried and the bulbs can be easily be pulled from the bunches.

Cutting tops off will reduce storage qualities and promote rot. Well matured and dried onions have a
shelf-life of at least six weeks and sell at Sh50 per kilo.