Abstract:
In Ethiopia, Onion is considered as one of the most important vegetable crops produced on small scale.
It also occupies an economically important place among vegetables in the country. The area under
onion is increasing from time to time mainly because of its high profitability per unit area and ease of
production and the increase in small scale production areas. The crop is produced both under rain fed
season and under off season through irrigation. Although the onion output is preferable and useful for
the society, its production activity in the study area is not that much high as expected from the area.
Therefore, the study tried to see the factors determining onion production in fogera District. To achieve
this objective of the study, data were composed from 197 respondents in the study area. Multiple linear
regression model and descriptive statistics were used for analyzing the required data. The result of the
study showed that the production of inion in fogera district was constant in both 2008/9 and 2009/10
years however in the last four consistency years , onion production was become increasing. Household
size, marketing cost and production cost were found to have a negative and significant influence on
onion crop production activity. While education level of the household head, lagged prices, total area
of onion cultivated coverage in hectare, quantity of inputs used ,sex of household head and access to
irrigation head were found to have a positive influence on onion production. Therefore, in order to
make onion production profitable and productive in the study area, policy makers should focus on
irrigation activity through the development of irrigation infrastructure and they should be focused on
providing advice and training to use the recommended fertilizer, providing credit with reasonable
interest rate and market related studies are vital. In addition to that to decrease marketing costs, it is
recommended to decrease players involved in the market, like encouraging direct sales of farmers
produce to wholesaler and more particularly linking small farmers produce to retail chain.
