Premier Seeds Company is selling a fast-maturing, high-yielding and disease-resistant onion variety that has a shelf life of more than six months when stored in a cool dry place, shielding onion farmers from the perennial losses they incur from contemporary perishable onion varieties, most of which have a lesser shelf life and are highly susceptible to diseases.
Dubbed Red Creole, this variety is highly resistant to two common onion diseases: downy mildew and purple blotch, which jointly destroy more than a quarter of onions produced globally, according to a fact sheet by Vegetable Online.
Downy mildew damages foliage and bulbs, resulting in loss of yield or even a complete failure of worthwhile bulbs to form while purple blotch caused by fungus alternaria discolor leaves and bulbs of onions rendering them unfit for market
Unlike other onion bulb varieties that take up to 175 days to mature, Red Creole only takes a maximum of 120 days and produces over 16 tonnes per hectare.
But the variety’s ability to stay long after harvest is perhaps the most exciting feature with more economic significance to farmers considering a latest report by FAO, which shows that vegetables account for more than 30 per cent of post-harvest food waste in the world.
Unlike other varieties which spoil quickly, this variety has a shelf life of six months when stored in a cool dry place.
According to Lilian Nyambura, an administrator at Premier Seeds, an 800g packet of Red Creole seeds is enough for an acres depending on spacing .The seedlings are ready for transplant after 45-50 days at a depth of 2.5 cm and intervals of 5 cm. This onion variety grows in warm climatic condition with soils with a PH value of 6-7.
The company retails an 800g packet of seeds at Sh2400 and use DHL and Wells Fargo to dispatch them to their clients across East Africa.
For more information about the seeds.
Premier Seed Limited can be reached through: +254 733 468 574 or +254 773 266 763