Winter watermelons give small, marginal farmers fresh hope of making a pretty penny

These experiments could benefit small and marginal farmers. They will need just one kannal (500 sq. metres) or 1/8th of an acre.

The crop is harvested after four months and earning is between Rs 1.30 lakh to Rs 1.90 lakh after meeting the production cost of around Rs 40,000-50,000.

Comparitively, a farmer earns an Rs 46,000 to Rs 52,000 per acre from traditional crops like wheat and paddy respectively in a year.

Watermelons are usually grown in open fields from February onwards and harvested in May-June in Punjab. After the successful trial of off-season watermelons, the centre is again ready to cultivate the same crop in January. The nursery has been prepared and grafting of plants is being done at the centre to get better quality fruit. This year’s fruit was sweet and crisp to taste.

Congress MLA from Kapurthala Assembly segment Rana Gurjit Singh, who visited the centre on Friday, said, “My district Kapurthala is known for growing muskmelons and watermelons. Because of the huge demand for watermelon even in off-season, I proposed this idea of growing it in the poly houses in winters. The scientists as well as project officer Dr. Daljit Singh Gill were quite forthcoming and took it up as a challenge and have done it very successfully.”

The crop once it is ready for harvesting. (Express Photo)

Project officer Dr Daljit Singh Gill said that the nursery of two varieties of watermelons including Jannat (light green) and Mannat (with dark green strips on fruits) were prepared at the centre after importing seeds from Taiwan, while transplantation was done in the first week of September in the 500 sq metre poly houses on raised beds. “Flowering happened after a month of sowing and then fruits came 15-20 days after flowering. The harvesting was started in the second week of December,” he added.

“Pollination was done by hand as the crop is cross-pollinated and we preferred to produce two fruits per plant with an average weight of 1.5 (Jannat) to 2.0 kg (Mannat). Being an off-season crop, the rate of these melons are quite high at around Rs 50 to 60 per kg. Because of wedding season, there is a huge demand of it,” said Dr Gill.

He further said that farmers need to plant 1,200 plants in a 500 sq. metre poly house which will yield 2,400 fruits (3,600-4,800 kg). At a rate of Rs 50 to 60 per kg, the earning would be Rs 1.80 lakh to Rs 2.40 lakh from just 500 sq metres. “After meeting production cost farmers can earn Rs 1.30 to Rs 1.90 lakh in just four months,” he added.

Shailender Kuar, Director Horticulture Punjab, said that to make a poly house on 500 sq. metres, the total cost is Rs 3 lakh, out of which 50 per cent subsidy is given by the government.

Deputy Director Horticulture, Jalandhar, Naresh Kumar, said, “At the centre, we are irrigating the crop with drip irrigation which saves more than 50% of water wastage and drip irrigation system is also available to farmers with 90% subsidy.”