Kerala agri varsity develops a new hybrid variety of salad cucumber

Salad cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is a nutritional ingredient in uncooked or cooked veggies served with lunch or supper. It is a versatile crop for increasing possibly underneath open up problem, shaded condition or secured cultivation underneath shade-net or poly-property.

Although ordinary cucumber form ideal for increasing underneath open up problem create both of those male and woman flowers, these Parthenocarpic hybrids ideal for increasing underneath poly-properties create only woman flowers and all these flowers produce into fruits without the need of pollination.

However, industrial production of Parthenocarpic cucumber hybrids carried out in the corporate sector via greenhouses has produced the seeds dearer to farmers with its cost ranging involving ₹4 and ₹6 for every seed, suggests T Pradeepkumar, Head of Department of Vegetable Science, Kerala Agricultural University (KAU).

Polyhouse cultivation

To make it a profitable agri-undertaking, he explained KAU has launched a new hybrid wide range — KAU Parthenocarpic Cucumber Hybrid-1(KPCH-1) — ideal for poly-property cultivation. The breeding lines produced by KAU could make accessible fruits at an reasonably priced price tag of ₹1 for every seed.

According to him, the recently-produced cucumber is ideally suited for poly-property cultivation, as the fruit is harvested in immature phase and vertical top of the poly-property composition can be utilised for the production of far more number of fruiting nodes.

Expenses and Returns

In India, cucumber is developed more than a few lakh hectares with a sector price of ₹60 crore for seeds both of those hybrid and ordinary. The Parthenocarpic cucumber hybrid is specialty segment and its profitability has captivated many 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 promoting cost of ₹60 for every kg, Pradeepkumar additional.

KPCH-1 was produced 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 community sector hybrid in Parthenocarpic cucumber hybrids notified in India.

These new cucumber hybrids are now the most sought-following wide range of farmers in Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Many upcountry farmers have already begun on-line procurement of seeds from KAU.

Moreover, the agricultural universities in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka have already performed trials with this hybrid wide range and discovered it to be excellent to industrial hybrids in the non-public sector, Pradeepkumar explained.