Chennai, Jul 5 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu Agricultural Marketing Board and and a farmers producers association in the state's Perambalur district have filed an application for Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the Chettikulam small onion.

NABARD's Madurai Agri-Business Incubation Farm is the facilitator for this application, which says that this particular onion is cultivated in Chettikulam village in Allathur block in Perambalur.

The small onion in this area has around 15-18 layers of dried outer scales and has a shelf life of 8 to 9 months. As many as 70,000 tonnes are produced in 12,500 hectares in the area. The high sulphur content in this region gives this particular onion the highest pungency taste.

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries has been on the 'Mission Onion Programme' for doubling the farmers' income by 2022 and has set up a Common Food Processing Incubation Centre at Chettikulam village to address the issue of small onion farmers.

Interestingly farmers of the region give a small quantity of onion after crop as an offering at the Lord Murugan temple of the area.