Farmers show interest in spine gourd cultivation

Spine gourd which is locally identified in the Malnad region as ‘Kadupeere’, ‘Madahagala’ and ‘Pavake’, is in huge demand these days.

Encashing the popularity of the vegetable, agriculturists in the region have been showing more interest in cultivating the vegetable in their fields.

During the rainy season, vendors wandered forests and hilly regions to collect spine gourds and sold them in the market.

Now, the creepers of the hybrid variety of Madahagala are available in the horticultural experiment station in Chettalli and farmers are availing them for cultivation.

Efforts were made in the Malnad region earlier to convert spine gourd cultivation into a profitable venture.

The harvest obtained by planting the seeds of spine gourd is less compared to that obtained by planting the tubers. The tuber is found on the creeper and if planted, the same tuber will sprout into a creeper, during rain.

There has been a good response by the farmers towards the distribution of spine gourd saplings at the horticultural experiment station.

A variety of spine gourd saplings were sourced from the horticulture centre in Bhubaneswar and were grown in Chettalli on an experimental basis.

Two months after the pollination, every creeper produced spine gourds weighing eight to 10 kilo. As the spine gourd is rich in protein, the vegetable is in great demand in the market.

Realising the same, the horticultural experiment station made them available to the farmers.

As the spine gourd can be grown in a short period, farmers have been purchasing the creepers from the centre and are planting them in their gardens.

Farmer Ravindra, who has grown spine gourd in the front yard of his house, said that as there are no bisexual flowers in spine gourd, pollination is a problem.

If pollination is done at the right time, more spine gourds can be obtained, he added.