Mr. Roshan Mattu S/o Shankar R Kodian, 30 years old young farmer from Mattu Village, Udupi Taluk of Udupi District raised half acre of Udupi Mattu Gulla brinjal at his field during rabi season 2020-21. After knowing the benefits of Arka Vegetable Special from the demonstrations conducted at Mattu by IIHR scientists (Dr. D. Kalaivanan and Dr. P.V.R. Reddy) during 2019-20 under Bhoo Samruddhi Project, Mr Roshan Mattu interacted with scientists of IIHR during the demonstration and collected four kg of vegetable special from IIHR. He has transplanted the seedlings of Mattu Gulla Brinjal in the month of October 2020 at a distance of two and half feet (75cm) between plants and more than 3 feet (100 cm) between rows. He has followed standard package of practices recommended by ICAR-IIHR. To improve the yield of mattu gulla, the recommended dosage of foliar application of vegetable special @ 75 grams in 15 liters of water (5 grams per litre) along with 1 shampoo sachet and 2 medium sized lemons has been practiced for four times. Mr. Roshan Mattu was constantly in touch with IIHR scientists (Dr. D. Kalaivanan and Dr. P.V.R. Reddy) visited his field regularly under Bhoo Samruddhi Project.
The farmer realized very good fruit yield (8.0 t from half acre) in mattu gulla and could sell the produce @ Rs 4000 per sack (about 50 kg) or Rs 80 per kg in nearby market. He was very happy with the performance of Arka Vegetable Special in terms of better fruit size, fruit weight, fruit colour and shining, less pest and disease incidence, yield and net returns. He got total income of Rs 6,40,000 for five to six months crop duration and very much satisfied. The farmer expressed happiness that he has got Rs 1,04,000 as additional income compared to without vegetable special spray (6.7 t from half acre and total income of Rs 5,36,000) due to better fruit setting, marketable fruit size, fruit colour and shining, 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 Vegetable Special helps in getting early fruiting, green colour fruits with light green stripes, which are very much preferred in the local markets, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gulf countries and fetches higher price. It also helps in retaining a greater number of flowers, thus increase in the fruit set leading to higher yield. Once he started spraying vegetable special in his field, neighboring mattu gulla growers also came to know about this micronutrient formulation and performance which he was used in the field. He has also motivated other farmer members of Mattu Gulla Belegarara Sanga (Mattu Gulla growers’ society) of mattu village and neighbouring villages to use this product which was developed by ICAR-IIHR for getting better yield and net profit in Udupi Mattu Gulla Brinjal.
