India produces onions, one of the agricultural products that is closely monitored. This crop has several personalities; it makes traders happy, farmers fear, and customer’s tear. In order to gather primary data, a multi-stage selection strategy was used to choose 90 onion farmers at random from two districts and 6-GPsin the study area. The Rabi season of the agricultural year 2022–2023 was the subject of the data that was collected. The absence of suitable storage facilities and technological know-how, the high cost of labour, the scarcity of high-yielding seed, and the higher input costs in the study area were some of the primary issues that the onion growers had to deal with. Overall, per hectare gross return (GR), gross margin (GM), and net return (NR) were found to be Rs. 116590.44, Rs. 51943.73, and Rs. 26869.58 respectively in the study area. In Kalahandi district, these figures were found to be Rs. 112860.22, Rs. 47585.71, and Rs. 22140.71, while in Nuapada district, they were Rs. 120320.67, Rs. 56301.78, and Rs. 31598.46 respectively. In Kalahandi district, the average rate of return over variable cost was 1.73, and over total cost was 1.24; in Nuapada district, these figures were 1.88 and 1.36. Whereas, the overall average rate of return over total cost and variable cost was 1.3 and 1.8, respectively. These findings showed that onions are a lucrative crop in both areas when it comes to rate of return on production. The estimated DRCs in Kalahandi and Nuapada were 0.58 and 0.53, respectively, suggesting that Odisha has a comparative advantage over other nations in the production of onions.