When you want to cook Managu what do you use? Onions. When you want to cook meat, what do you use? Onions!

Nearly every meal of the average Kenyan has to have onions as part of the ingredients.

This tells you something about the market out there. There is a high demand for onions! Here is how you can tap into that demand and make a profit from it.

Yield per one acre of onions

In 3 months an acre of Hybrid bulb onions will give you an income of Sh. 800,000. After 3 months of transplanting the onions it can produce a yield of 20,000 Kgs bulbs.

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1 Kg of Onions at market price goes @ Ksh 40 i.e 20,000 Kgs × 40 Shillings = Ksh. 800,000 minus average cost of production which is Ksh. 150, 000 per Acre = Ksh 650, 000 Net income. This though is on the lower end.

Price of onions per kg in Kenya

The price of onions has been known to vary. For example, in March this year, the price of onions per kg in Kenya shot up by 86 per cent, to sell at Sh. 150 up from Sh. 80.

Traders were being forced to rely on local crops that was selling at a wholesale price of Sh. 100 per kilo.

In another pricing example, in November last year, dry onions were retailing at an average market price of 900 shillings for a 13-kilogram bag. In Nairobi, dry onions were being sold at 70 shillings per kilogram, with a 13 kg bag going for 910 shillings.

The same 13 kg bag of dry onions was being sold at 750 shillings and 1,040 shillings in Nakuru and Eldoret respectively.

High yielding varieties in Kenya include, Jambar F1, Red Pinoy F1, Red Comet F1, Red passion F1.

How to Plant Onions

To get the best results with onions you need to start them in a nursery.

Here is how to do this;

• Make a raised nursery bed 1 metre wide and any desired length.
• Apply well decomposed manure at a rate of 15kg per square metre.
• Mix and Apply DAP fertilizer at a rate of 20 grams per metre square.
• 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.
• Plant the seeds and cover lightly with soil and apply mulches ( Grass or Polythene cover spread over the soil on the nursery bed).
• After planting irrigate the nursery bed liberally for the first 10 days and continue watering regularly.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• It takes about 4 months for onions to mature

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

Before you begin onion farming you need to check and confirm market availability, price of the onions and the variety of the plant.

Here’s a video on farming one acre of onions: