Organic cultivation of high yielding turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) cultivars: a viable alternative to enhance rhizome productivity, profitability, quality and resource-use efficiency in monkey-menace areas of north-western Himalayas

摘要

Turmeric (Curcuma long L.) is a major spice crop in India in general and north-western (NW) Himalayas in particular where it is grown mostly organic by default using biennial local strains having low productivity. This crop is becoming an alternate crop in monkey-menace areas in NW Himalayas transferring into gigantic fallow lands otherwise. There is a dire need to boost turmeric productivity in the region by introducing high yielding turmeric cultivars (HYTCs). Thus, an extensive 'On-farm' experimentation was done at 10 locations in 6 monkey-menace affected community-development-blocks (CBDs) (Sadar, Sundemagar, Dharampur, Gopalpur, Seraj and Gohar) of the randomly selected district-Mandi of the randomly selected Himalayan province-Himachal Pradesh as the study area. For this purpose, two newly released annually harvested HYTCs (Palam Pitamber and Palam Lalima) along with a widely grown local strain 'Suketi Heidi' in NW Himalayas (as check), were planted along with organic manure to FYM @ 20 t ha(-1) on oven dry weight basis. Mean data of two years revealed that Palam Pitamber resulted in highest rhizome yield (32.94 t ha(-1)) followed by Palm Lalima (32,35 t ha(-1)) compared to biennially harvested 'Suketi Haldi' (12.45 t ha(-1)). Likewise, Palate Pitamber resulted in highest net returns and net B: C ratio ((sic) 416,548 ha(-1); 5.38) followed by Palam Lama and Suketi Haldi, respectively. The curcumin content was higher in 'Suketi Hale (5.18%), but the curcumin yield was significantly higher in Palam Pitarnber and Palam Lalima. The monetary-efficiency indices revealed that organic turmeric cultivation using HYTCs may fetch about 1243-1270 (sic) ha(-1) day(-1) to the Himalayan farmers. Overall, the turmeric rhizome yield was enhanced by about three-folds, profitability by 3-4 folds, resource-use efficiency (RUE) by 2-3 folds in terms of production- and monetary efficiency, water-use efficiency and partial factor productivity of applied nutrients (NPK) by the adoption of HYTCs coupled with FYM @ 20 t ha(-1) over 'Suketi Heidi'. Higher technology adoption rate (72-98%) and net income gains (2.3-2.5 folds) in the study area advocated for employing 'Participatory-mode' adaptive research methodologies following intensive technology transfer programme in remote hill agro-ecologies. In nutshell, the newly developed HYTCs exhibited great potential in boosting the turmeric productivity, profitability, curcumin yield and RUE vis-a-vis wider adaptability in monkey-menace areas to improve rural livelihoods and make organic turmeric cultivation a promising agri-entrepreneurship in NW Himalayas.