Community Small Onion / Multiplier Onion (Allium cepa var aggregatum) Nursery as a contingency measure for delayed planting in NICRA village of Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu, India

Vadavathur in Namakkal District is a drought prone village. The annual rainfall is 400 mm. In Vadavathur village, small onion is cultivated in two main seasons viz., Early kharif (May – August) and Rabi (November – December). Generally small onion is propagated by means of bulbs. However, NICRA village Vadavathur experienced aberrant rainfall situations with minimum rainy days for the past 5 years during sowing season especially during Rabi impacting adversely small onion production and livelihood of farmers.