Curing and storage of Nasik red onions (Allium cepa L.).

Rangda. Pol and Unhali are the three crops of onions in Nasik Disll';ct. Rangda crop is
the speciality of the district, Onions of Rangda crop are best in colour, Pol crop are Ihe most
pungent and Unhali crop has in baween values for both.
Eight different me/hods ofcuring WeTI' fried as proper curing of onion is on importa11/
post-harvest operation from storage point of view. The optimum loss of moisture at the end of
curing period of 3 days was found 10 be 4 to 6 per cent. For all the 3 crops, the method o{noturalleaf
cover and bunch hanging Wefe found to be the best in regord to colour development and
retention, pungency and reduction in wastage on ,ftorage.
Summer crop is the only crop which is storedfor longer period (5 to 6 months) during
rainy season and is most susceptible to microbial spoilage and sprouting. Out of the eight
methods of curing tried, leaf cover method reduced the microbial spoilage fi'om 703 in control
to 3./9 and sprouting from 5.65 to 4.57. The bunch hanging method was found to be the best
for the control of sprouting.
An improved STOrage structure (cop.- 1500 lonnes) comprising of two lier system is under
'construction at the NAFED yard at Lasa/gaon in Nasik district.