Kerala agri varsity develops a new hybrid variety of salad cucumber
Salad cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is a nutritional component in uncooked or cooked vegetables served with lunch or evening meal. It is a versatile crop for developing possibly less than open problem, shaded situation or safeguarded cultivation less than shade-web or poly-residence.
Even though standard cucumber style suitable for developing less than open problem make each male and woman bouquets, these Parthenocarpic hybrids suitable for developing less than poly-properties make only woman bouquets and all these bouquets develop into fruits with out pollination.
Nevertheless, professional manufacturing of Parthenocarpic cucumber hybrids carried out in the corporate sector by way of greenhouses has designed the seeds dearer to farmers with its cost ranging among ₹4 and ₹6 for each seed, claims T Pradeepkumar, Head of Department of Vegetable Science, Kerala Agricultural University (KAU).
Polyhouse cultivation
To make it a lucrative agri-enterprise, he explained KAU has launched a new hybrid assortment — KAU Parthenocarpic Cucumber Hybrid-1(KPCH-1) — suitable for poly-residence cultivation. The breeding lines created by KAU could make offered fruits at an inexpensive value of ₹1 for each seed.
In accordance to him, the freshly-made cucumber is preferably suited for poly-residence cultivation, as the fruit is harvested in immature stage and vertical peak of the poly-residence construction can be utilised for the manufacturing of a lot more selection of fruiting nodes.
Prices and Returns
In India, cucumber is developed over three lakh hectares with a marketplace worth of ₹60 crore for seeds each hybrid and standard. The Parthenocarpic cucumber hybrid is specialty phase and its profitability has attracted lots of youthful farmers to go for its cultivation. A 10 cent poly-residence can produce 5 tonnes with a return of ₹3 lakh in 4 months at a providing cost of ₹60 for each kg, Pradeepkumar included.
KPCH-1 was made by the University with a concentrated breeding programme in 2011. It was notified for Kerala by the Central Seed Committee in 2019. This is the only public sector hybrid in Parthenocarpic cucumber hybrids notified in India.
These new cucumber hybrids are now the most sought-immediately after assortment of farmers in Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Several upcountry farmers have previously started out on line procurement of seeds from KAU.
Besides, the agricultural universities in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka have previously performed trials with this hybrid assortment and identified it to be exceptional to professional hybrids in the personal sector, Pradeepkumar explained.