A field day cum Farmers, Marketers and Scientists Interface Meeting for promotion of muskmelon cv. Arka Siri was organized at Madapalli village, Maraganakunte, Bagepalli Taluk, Chikkabalapur District, Karnataka on 05.03.2020. The field day was conducted in the field of Sh. Gangi Reddy at Madapalli village. The main aim of the field day was to create awareness about the new muskmelon variety Arka Siri. The programme started with the welcome of the guests by Mr.Atheequlla G.A., Scientist. Later, Dr. E Sreenivasa Rao, Principal Scientist & breeder of the variety briefed about its attributes especially about the deep orange flesh colour with good aroma, sweetness and the advantage of being an open pollinated variety.
Farmer, Mr Gangi Reddy shared his experience about growing of this variety. He had grown this variety in five acres at two different dates of sowing. He expressed his happiness with the quality of the fruit. This variety is relatively tolerant to diseases like powdery and downy mildew and each plant yields at least two fruits of 1 kg each. One consignment of 10 tons fruits was sold to an agent and sent to Mumbai for marketing. The fruits were able to sustain the long distance transportation and the trader was happy with the market response. Another consignment was procured by Star Bazaar for its retail chain. His cultivation expenses amounted to Rs.30,000/- per acre. In an area of 2.5 acres, he harvested nearly 35 tons of marketable fruits and earned a return of Rs. 3.7 lakh in 65 days.
Another farmer, Mr. Gangadhar Reddy of Bhoopuru Village, Pavagoda taluk was also invited to share his experience of growing Arka Siri on this occasion. He expressed that he had grown this variety in an area of one acre along with four acres of the popular Kundan variety of Muskmelon. Compared to Kundan, he got higher average yield per plant from Arka Siri and expressed that the farmers can use the same seed for the next year if no other Muskmelon crop is grown nearby, which saves the cost of cultivation to the farmers by nearly Rs. 25,000/ha. He also sold the produce through an agent to Mumbai and got a net price of Rs. 16 per kg.
Mr Jagadeep from Vrutti Shri.Mokshagundam Vishveswariah FPO of Maraganakunte briefed about the activities taken up by their FPO viz., technical advisory, collective marketing of the produce etc. and expressed his willingness to promote this variety.
Mr. Ramesh, Sourcing Manager of Star Bazaar was also invited for the programme to witness the productivity and performance of the variety and connect with the farmers and other marketers. He opined that the fruit of the new variety is appealing with nice aroma and opined that it will be a good performer in the segment. He procured a consignment from the farmer for selling in their retail malls.
Later, Mr Eshwarappa, Senior Assistant Director of Horticulture, Chickballpur advised farmers to take the technical help of horticulture department and suggested to use balanced pesticides to avoid residues. Dr R Veere Gowda, Principal Scientist & Head, Division of Vegetable Crops, briefed about the activities of the division and complimented the breeder for the achievement. Dr Krishna Reddy, Principal Scientist & Head, Division of Plant Pathology addressed the farmers to take the benefit of ICAR-IIHR staff for advisory and to reduce unnecessary expenditure.
Dr K.S. Shivashakara, Principal Scientist & Head, Division of Plant Physiology and In-charge Director was the Chief Guest of the field day. He addressed the gathering and congratulated and complimented the farmer, Mr Gangi Reddy for growing a good crop of Arka Siri. He suggested to take all the possible help from IIHR in the field of horticulture. The programme ended with a formal vote of thanks by Dr R Venkattakumar, Principal Scientist and Head (I/c), Division of Social Sciences & Training. Several other scientific staff of ICAR-IIHR participated and witnessed the field day.
More than 75 farmers participated and visited the muskmelon field. This field day was coordinated by Dr.E Sreenivasa Rao, Division of vegetable crops, R Venkattakumar, Principal Scientist and Head(I/c) and Mr.Atheequlla G.A, Scientist, Division of Social Sciences and Training, ICAR-IIHR.
