Food and Scientific Reports ISSN 2582-5437 foodandscientificreports.com

Rooftop bottle gourd farming for additional income of the small farmers in Bihar

Anup Kumar1, Ajay Kumar2

1Senior Research Fellow, 2Principal Scientist, Division of Land and Water Management, ICAR-RCER, Patna.

ABSTRACT According to the national horticultural board (NHB) the average production of the Bottle gourd in year 2017-18 was highest in Bihar with 649.69 tons and second was Uttar Pradesh with production 427.81 tons. In , Bottle gourd cultivation has occupied an area of 1.58 million hectares with a production of 2.6 million hectares, which can be reduced relatively when practiced or grown on the rooftop of the house which can be commonly seen in the villages of Bihar and UP. Kaccha Ghar (Earthen home) roof top have large surface area as compared to the permanent structured home rooftop, due to the inclined rooftop floors. Hence this structure (khapda ka ghar and karkat houses) is highly suitable for this type of practice. This technique is even suitable for the low height and 1 floor houses. The rural villages of Bihar and UP can be advised to extensively adopt this technique as this can increase the livelihood of the small farmer and even land-less farmers. It is advised that 2-3 plants can be grown at pull to rooftop location but in farm and land sowing the seed rate is 3 to 6kg/ha.

India produces 11.2 per cent of global and cardiotonic properties. Its pulp is even used as an production among which the major crops are potato, antidote production against certain poisons and it is well tomato, onion, brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower, peas okra known for controlling constipation, night blindness and and bottle gourd(The Hindu-business line, 20 January cough. Decoction made of its leaf is taken for curing 2020).West Bengal has overtaken Uttar Pradesh and jaundice and widely being used villages. emerged as the top vegetable producing state in 2018-19, In case of dropsy its seeds were used as a as per the data presented in a recent horticultural meeting medicine. It is the modest source of nutrients (Sheshadri, In a conference organized by Agriculture Ministry in Jan 1986) and still it is popular only among a large section of 2020 had released a State-wise horticulture production populations across globe. It was heard that in villages its data which shows that West Bengal produced 29.55 leaf juice was used for curing children diarrhea. million tonnes (mt.) of last year against 27.70 Decoction of its leaf along with sugar is used for jaundice mt in the year before. Vegetable production in UP, which treatment in India. Its seed oil application is common for was on top position earlier, came down to 27.71 mt in relieving headache. 2018-19 from 28.32 mt the previous year. The origin of Bottle gourd lagenaria siceraria Accurate spacing and nitrogen application has (Molina Standl) is of tropical and now being enhanced the yield of bottle gourd (Shukla and cultivated in warm and humid climates around the world Prabhakar, 1987; Jadhav et al., 1996 and Patil et al., for its various uses like vegetable, ornamental and useful 1996). In past two decades progress has been made in the hard-shelled . In Northern India it is widely being development of high yielding varieties and hybrids grown during spring-summer and rainy season. Its name varieties. The assessment of input like spacing and ‘bottle gourd’ was originated due to its shape like bottle fertilizers for newly developed bottle gourd varieties is and its use as a container in the past history. This fruit is very important. According to the national horticultural used as vegetables in its green stage with leaves and board (NHB) the average production of the Bottle gourd stem. Tribal community across the globe uses its hard in year 2017-18 was highest in Bihar with 649.69 tons shells as utensils and for preparation of some musical and second was Uttar Pradesh with production 427.81 instrument. Its pulp is known as a good source of fibre tons. In India, Bottle gourd cultivation has occupied an free carbohydrates. It is even used for preparation of area of 1.58 million hectares with a production of 2.6 sweets and pickles when it is at tender stage. In the tribal million hectares (Anonymous, 2017-2018) which can be and remote villages it was seen that hard shells of mature reduced relatively when practised or grown on the are used as water jugs, domestic utensils, floats for rooftop of the house which can be commonly seen in the fishing nets, etc. Many health Dietician and doctors villages of Bihar and UP. recommend this vegetable for old age people as it is easily digestible. It has cooling effect and has diuretic

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Food and Scientific Reports ISSN 2582-5437 foodandscientificreports.com

Material and Method Bottle gourd is a climbing crop with duration of 2 to 4 Manure and Fertilizer months. Its physiology is leaf are dark green till it is dry Add FYM manure @ 10-15 t/ha at the time of seed due to age off, flowers are solitary and chalky white in sowing and PK @100:60:60 kg/ ha should be applied colour and its fruits are varying shape and size depends after its germination. And for land and farm grown, apply upon varieties. 10 kg of FYM (20 t/ha) 100 g of NPK 6:12:12 mixture as basal and 10 g of N per pit 30 days after sowing.

Training and pruning Bottle gourd has good vegetative growth so a proper training and pruning are advantageous. Training plants to bower helps to tap sunlight more effectively and yield as high as 80 t/ha was obtained. Auxiliary buds of growing vines were advised to be removed till vines attain bower height. When vine reaches bower, removed of apical bud is 10-15 cm below bower to let 2 or 3 branches to extend Climate and Soil on bower. After creation of 4-5 fruits, vines are once Favourable climate for its cultivation is hot and moist as more pruned allowing 2-3 auxiliary buds only to grow on it is a typical warm season vegetable. The Optimum night primary vines. and day temperature for its proper growth and high fruit set is 18- 22°C and 30-35 °C respectively, as it cannot Irrigation with stand frost which can reduce its growth and yield. It This should be considered as plant in the kitchen garden was seen that Sandy loam soil is most suitable for its and should be irrigated at every second day (10 litres) cultivation (Bihar and Uttar Pradesh max area soil texture with light water pouring. The summer crop requires found is Sandy loam). It is suggested that the soil should regular irrigation at 4-5 days of interval. In the rainy be rich in organic matter with good drainage. A well season crop No irrigation is require. drained fertile silt loam soil was seen ideal for cultivation of bottle gourd. This crop is highly suitable for river bed Harvesting and Yield cultivation because it has deep tap root system. For Bottle gourd harvesting can be started at 35 - 55 day after rooftop cultivation method a deep soil supports vines for sowing depending upon variety. It was suggested that it a long period and where water availability is sufficient should be harvested when the rind of the fruit is very and here it is grown throughout the year. tender and green. There should be no delay in harvesting as it causes the fruit to become unfit for marketing. Sowing Average yield which can be attained is between 0.25 to For rooftop method a best suited location should be 0.45 kg / ft2 floor area. chosen were watering and fertilizer application would be After 10-12 days of anthesis fruits attain edible maturity easy. It should be noted that the location of its planting and can be observed by pressing on fruit skin and noting would be easy enough to pull it to climb through a rope pubescence persisting on skin. Seeds are soft during its on the roof top. After incorporating farmyard manure, edible maturity but it becomes hard and flesh coarse on seeds can be sown at a distance of 2.0-3.5 m between aging and drying. Cylindrical shape at tinder stage is plants. In a farm and land sowing which is sloppy is done generally market demanding. Harvesting can be done at in pits with 2-3 plants / pit. Better germination can be 3-4 days intervals. While harvesting, care should be taken seen if the seeds were soaked for 12-24 hours in water or to avoid injury to fruits as well as to vines. Plucking of in succinic acid (600 ppm). There is no recommended fruits at the time of harvesting should be done with sharp seed rate for rooftop method as it is advised that 2-3 knives by keeping a small part of fruit stalk along with plants can be grown at pull to rooftop location but in fruit to avoid its damage. Average yield of open farm and land sowing the seed rate is 3 to 6kg/ha . The pollinated varieties is 20-25 t/ha and for F1 hybrids seed were sown from January to February for summer varieties it is 40-50 t/ha. Under cool and moist condition crops and June to July for rainy season crops. In hills this fruits can be stored for 3-5 days and for export seeds were sown in April. purpose it can be packed in polythene bags and bags may

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Food and Scientific Reports ISSN 2582-5437 foodandscientificreports.com be kept in boxes of 50-100 kg add capacity. In case of 20 Sikkim 8.62 rooftop farming the significantly highest fruit yield of 21 Nagaland 0.2 150 to 250 q/h can be obtained at sowing distance of 1 Total 2,669.04 metre or higher spacing with highest net returns of Source: National Horticulture Board (NHB) Rs.50,000/ha to 80,000/ha. But for farm produce

(Mukesh and Kuldeep, july 2018) it can be highest as Conclusion 378.0 q/h can be obtained at 60cm spacing with net Kaccha Ghar (Earthen home) roof top have large surface returns of Rs.1, 27, 227/ha. area as compared to the permanent structured home

rooftop, due to the inclined rooftop floors. Hence this Recommended improved verities structure (khapda ka ghar and karkat houses) is highly Pusa aveen, Pusa Hybrid-3 and Pusa Meghdoot are the suitable for this type of practice. This technique is even recommended varieties for this region which has suitable for the low height and 1 floor houses. The rural cylindrical bright green, 40-45 cm long fruits weighing villages of Bihar and UP can be advised to extensively 600-750 g. Recommended F1 hybrids verities area, Pusa adopt this technique as this can increase the livelihood of Meghdoot, Pusa Manjari, Pusa Hybrid 3 and Pant Sankar the small farmer and even land fewer farmers. Lauki 1 were developed in public sector in bottle gourd.

References Discussions Anonymous (2017). Area and production of Bottle Gourd According to the National Horticulture Board in India. Department of Horticulture, Haryana. the data statics given for the bottle gourd production in Anonymous (2017). Area and production of Bottle Gourd India as below the table 1: in India. Department Of Agriculture Cooperation Table1. Sate wise Bottle gourd Production in 2017-18 & Farmers Welfare, Government of India. year E-Paper, The Hindu/The Business Line (Published, 20 Sr State Production No. (000 Tonnes) January2020).https://www.thehindubusinessline.c 1 Bihar 649.69 om / economy / agri – business / west-Bengal – emerges - at - the - top - in – vegetable production 2 Uttar Pradesh 427.81 / article 30609191 3 Haryana 364.69 Jadhav, V.T., Patil, S.S.D. and Pawar, V.S. (1996). 4 Madhya Pradesh 349.39 Response of bottle gourd to irrigation and nitrogen 5 Chhattisgarh 252.27 levels. Journal of Maharashtra Agricultural 6 Orissa 138.5 University. 21 (1): 131-132. Mukesh Kumar and Kuldeep Kumar (2018), Economic 7 Punjab 135.64 Analysis of Hybrid and Conventional Varieties of 8 Assam 51.56 Bottle Gourd as Affected by Different Levels of 9 Andhra Pradesh 50.94 Nitrogen and Plant Spacing, International Journal 10 Telangana 41.35 of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences 11 Tripura 39.44 ISSN: 2319-7706,7 (08). 12 Maharashtra 35.84 Patil, S.R., Desai, U.T., Pawer, B.G. and Patil, B.T. 13 Jammu & Kashmir 29.64 (1996). Effect of NPK does on growth and yield 14 Rajasthan 23.83 of bottle gourd cv. Samrat. Journal of Maharashtra Agricultural University.21 (1), 65-67. 15 Tamil Nadu 16.02 Sheshadri, V.S. (1986). Cucurbits, In, Vegetable Crops in 16 Jharkhand 15.43 India. T.K. Bose and M.G. Som (Ed), Naya 17 Karnataka 15.3 Prokash, Calcutta, pp. 92. 18 Kerala 13.52 Shukla, V. and Prabhakar, B.S. (1987). Effect of plant 19 Meghalaya 9.36 spacing and fertilizer on yield of bottle gourd. South Indian Horticulture. 35 (6), 453-454.

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