Mr.D.K.Manjunath a school teacher cum progressive farmer of Byndoor Village, Kundapura Taluk of Udupi District raised quarter acre of local bhindi (white bhindi or halu bhindi) at his field during rabi season 2018-19. After knowing the benefits of Arka Vegetable Special (micronutrient formulation) from the demonstrations conducted at Byndoor by ICAR-IIHR scientists (Dr. D. Kalaivanan and Dr. P.V.R. Reddy) and Scientists of KVK, Brahmavar) under ICRISAT-IIHR Bhoo Samrudhi Project, Mr D.K. Manjunath interacted with Scientists of ICAR-IIHR and collected five kg of Arka Vegetable Special from ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru. He has sown the seeds of white bhindi in the month of December 2018 at a distance of one and half feet between plants. He followed standard package of practices recommended by ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru. To improve the yield of bhindi, the recommended dosage of foliar application of Arka Vegetable Special @ 75 grams in 15 liters of water (5 grams per litre) along with 1 shampoo sachet and 2 medium sized lemons was applied for four times. Mr. D.K. Manjuanth was constantly in touch with ICAR- IIHR scientists (Dr. D. Kalaivanan, Dr.P.V.R. Reddy and Dr R. Senthil Kumar and Scientists of KVK, Brahmavar) who visited his field regularly under ICRISAT-IIHR Bhoo- Samrudhi Project.
The farmer realized very good fruit yield (14.5 t/acre) in bhindi and could sell the produce @ Rs 40 per kg in nearby market. He was very happy with the performance of Arka Vegetable Special in terms of better fruit size, fruit weight, extended crop duration, yield and net returns. He earned a net profit of Rs. 1,21,250 for four months crop duration and very much satisfied. The farmer expressed happiness that he has got half kilogram as additional yield (3.0 kg/plant) and Rs 24,168 as additional profit compared to without Arka Vegetable Special spray (yield of 2.5 kg/plant and 12.1 t/ac and net income of Rs 95,833 ) due to better fruit setting, fruit size, fruit weight and extended crop duration. He also opined that Arka Vegetable Special can give continuous flowering and fruiting. Further, the farmer opined that as the Arka Vegetable Special helps in getting early fruiting, with tender white colour fruits, which are very much preferred in the local markets and fetches higher price. It also helps in retaining more number of flowers, thus increase in the fruit set leading to higher yield. Once he started spraying Arka Vegetable Special in his field, neighboring vegetable growers also came to know about this micronutrient formulation and performance which he was used in the field. Now he is using Arka vegetable special regularly for all the vegetable crops as he has noticed improvement in yield and fruit quality particularly in bhindi and watermelon. He has also motivated other farmers in the village and neighbouring villages to use this product which was developed by ICAR-IIHR.
