Impact of Climate Variability on Seed Yield of Onion in Mid Hills of Himachal Pradesh, India

Present investigation was conducted at Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni (HP) to study the effect of changing climatic conditions on seed yield of onion (Allium cepa L.) in mid hills of Himachal Pradesh. The meteorological data (30 years) and onion seed yield data (26 years) were collected; correlation and regression analysis between various weather parameters (temperature, rainfall and relative humidity) and onion seed productivity was done for productivity trend analysis. Weather based crop yield forecast model equation was developed and crop yield was predicted with maximum accuracy of 69 per cent. The trend analysis revealed that onion seed productivity over the last 26 years showed a fluctuating pattern with an overall decreasing trend at the rate of 2.58 kg ha-1 per year. Climatic variability analysis indicated an increase in average temperature (0.60°C and 0.46°C) and decrease in total rainfall (57.02 mm and 183.14 mm) during 1995-2004 (decade-1) and 2005-2014 (decade-2), respectively over the baseline (1985-1994). Whereas, relative humidity (RH) showed an increase of 0.03% during first decade and decrease of 3.39% during second decade over the baseline. Thus it can be concluded that changing climatic conditions in mid hills of Himachal Pradesh negatively affected the seed production of onion.