US researcher get big funding to improve short-day onion production

Texas A&M AgriLife Research recently received more than $5.2 million in grant funding from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture for a project to address multiple aspects of the southern U.S. onion harvest system. The director for the “Ensuring Future Economic Viability of U.S. Short-Day Onion Production Through Mechanical Harvesting” project will be Subas Malla, Associate Professor of vegetable breeding at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Uvalde. “The goal of this proposal is to improve profitability and ultimately market share for short-day onions by mechanizing short-day onion harvesting,” Malla says. “We intend to do this through development and selection of cultivars, optimization of production practices, improved harvest systems, and communication of the associated socioeconomic benefits to growers and packers.” Short-day onions long on production challenges The majority of onions grown across the southern region of the U.S. are ...