India: Pumpkin kicks up a farming revolution
Farmers use the pumpkin stalk to grow bitter gourd, cucumber, watermelon, sweet melon, chilli, tomato and bringal. The top portion of such crop is known as 'saion.'
"This method of grafting has three distinct benefits- protection from soil-based diseases, faster vegetative growth and higher yield," assistant director, horticulture, Surat and Bharuch, Dinesh Pataliya said.
As the grafting is done in the middle, the vegetative growth of a plant is faster. A tomato plant just takes 30 days to grow instead of 45 days after grafting and the yield, too, is higher by 50 per cent.
An innovative farmer from Bharadiya village of Valiya taluka in Bharuch Jayesh Patel sells grafted plants of different vegetables. "It helps us to produce good yield. Crops are free from seasonal soil-based diseases if they are grafted in this manner," he said.
The plant saplings are grown in a couple of 100 square metre greenhouses in the taluka. Farmers from the area purchase the grafted plants from such greenhouses for their fields.
The horticulture department sources said the yield in Valiya taluka has gone up by at least 50 per cent after the farmers began to use grafted saplings in the past year or so.
Source: indiatimes.com
