Agriculture

The cucumber growers

During the last cucumber season the farmers of Kansala village in Rohtak district of Haryana never had it so good. They had judiciously used technology and their proximity to the national capital to get good return on their produce. However, they are anxious about the coming season as they suspect more and more people would be cultivating cucumber thus pulling down the markets for everyone. They wish there was a mechanism to regulate production.

Kansala, 18 kilometers from Rohtak on the Delhi road, is a farming village that is poised to take full advantage of its proximity to the national capital. It has taken to the cultivation of vegetables as they know that because of the market in nearby urban centres they do not face the problem of selling their produce. However, what has bothered them all these years is the risk of indifferent production that is caused by a number of factors.

Traditionally, the farmers of this village have gone through the motions of cultivation with a sense of resignation to fate. It is no longer so. With the pro-active role being played by the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) and the earlier efforts to make the farmers be more demanding in the choice of the seeds and the technology of cultivation, these farmers have seen a remarkable change not only in their fortunes but also in the general attitude of the market forces.

There are about 1200 families in village Kansala of which about 100 of them undertake the cultivation of cucumber. On an average, for an acre of plot a farmer needs half a kilogram of seed. Experience of the farmers has taught them to be particular in the choice of the seed as the requirement per acre costs approximately Rs. 5000. The authorities too have been vigilant to ensure that only quality seed is available in the market. These farmers also are careful in preparing the field as for optimum production that is a must. The field has thus to be ploughed 10-15 times with each round of ploughing costing Rs. 250. Another Rs. 500 is required to cover the cost for the ridger and for the labor for ten days, i.e. Rs 1000 for the sowing.

These farmers are careful in making all the inputs and they use about 2 bags of DAP costing Rs. 1000, one bag of 10 kilograms of Zinc costing Rs.230 and a bag of Urea costing Rs.240. There is an additional expenditure of Rs. 2000 towards the weedicide and another of Rs.300 and Rs. 5000 for Fungicide and Pesticide respectively. Since the fields have to be irrigated from the tube wells a considerable amount has to be spent on the diesel for running the pumps. During the life of the crop it has to be irrigated 25 times and each time the fields are irrigated it costs Rs. 250. The cultivation requires 5 hands for 45 days costing the farmer Rs. 4500.

Having taken care that nothing was amiss and every step had been carefully executed and the nature too had remained kind a farmer like Ram Kumar had a yield of about 20 quintals every day. The rate that this crop fetches varies from day to day as when it first arrives in the market in early season the rate is good but gradually it tapers off to fetch an average of Rs 300 per quintal. Since the demand for quality vegetables has grown and the customers are becoming more demanding in matters of quality and there is also considerable competition within the big players who have entered the retail market, groups like the Mother Dairy make it a point to reach out to the farmers of Kansala for purchase. In the bargain there is less chance of the farmers getting short changed in the market.

The challenge before these farmers is however the controlled production so that they keep getting remunerative price for their produce. These farmers are in the process of determining beforehand which among them would be sowing cucumber and which one the lady fingers and the gourd. Once this process gets streamlined one can hope that the farmers would never suffer losses due to excessive production.