Seed Quality Enhancement of Onion during Storage

Onion (Allium cepa L.)is the second most important horticultural crop after tomato in the world and so it is also known as Queen of the Kitchen. India is the second largest producer of onion after China as it produces about 9.2 million tonnes of onion from about 0.7 million hectares. Major onion producing states of India are Maharashtra (23.16%), Gujarat (16.8%) and Uttar Pradesh (12.46%). The pungency of onion is due to the presence of Allyl propyl disulphide-a sulphur compound. Onion also possesses several medicinal properties and so it is exported to several countries in substantial quantity. Seed quality enhancement is a post harvest treatment that improves germination, seedling growth and facilitate the delivery of seeds and other materials required at the time of sowing. Seed priming and seed coating are new techniques which not only maintains the seed quality of onion seeds during storage but also enhances it. The persistence of fungicides on the seed is of paramount importance as it determines the longevity of effective seed treatment during storage. Certain fungicides, irrespective of the amount of dressing present on the seed, strongly inhibit the incidence of fungi.