Salad cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is a dietary component in raw or cooked veggies served with lunch or meal. It is a versatile crop for expanding either less than open up problem, shaded condition or protected cultivation less than shade-internet or poly-property.
Even though standard cucumber sort suitable for expanding less than open up problem develop both equally male and woman flowers, these Parthenocarpic hybrids suitable for expanding less than poly-residences develop only woman flowers and all these flowers build into fruits with out pollination.
Having said that, commercial manufacturing of Parthenocarpic cucumber hybrids carried out in the corporate sector via greenhouses has produced the seeds dearer to farmers with its rate ranging between ₹4 and ₹6 for each seed, says T Pradeepkumar, Head of Section of Vegetable Science, Kerala Agricultural College (KAU).
Polyhouse cultivation
To make it a rewarding agri-undertaking, he said KAU has released a new hybrid variety — KAU Parthenocarpic Cucumber Hybrid-one(KPCH-one) — suitable for poly-property cultivation. The breeding lines created by KAU could make available fruits at an economical cost of ₹1 for each seed.
In accordance to him, the recently-produced cucumber is ideally suited for poly-property cultivation, as the fruit is harvested in immature stage and vertical height of the poly-property composition can be utilised for the manufacturing of additional quantity of fruiting nodes.
Fees and Returns
In India, cucumber is grown above a few lakh hectares with a current market price of ₹60 crore for seeds both equally hybrid and standard. The Parthenocarpic cucumber hybrid is specialty segment and its profitability has attracted a lot of younger farmers to go for its cultivation. A 10 cent poly-property can yield 5 tonnes with a return of ₹3 lakh in four months at a marketing rate of ₹60 for each kg, Pradeepkumar included.
KPCH-one was produced by the College with a focused breeding programme in 2011. It was notified for Kerala by the Central Seed Committee in 2019. This is the only community sector hybrid in Parthenocarpic cucumber hybrids notified in India.
These new cucumber hybrids are now the most sought-just after variety of farmers in Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Several upcountry farmers have already started on the internet procurement of seeds from KAU.
Moreover, the agricultural universities in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka have already conducted trials with this hybrid variety and uncovered it to be remarkable to commercial hybrids in the non-public sector, Pradeepkumar said.
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