Diara Land & Cucurbit Cultivation – Riverbed farming(Innovative Farming).

Let us explain you Individually the meaning of both “Diara Land” & “Cucurbit” .

Diara:  Diara is the piece of land that has got created in the middle of the river Ganges as a result of deposition of sands over the decades.

Cucurbit: A plant of the gourd family ( Cucurbitaceae ), which includes melon, pumpkin, squash, and cucumber.

 

Diara land farming or riverbed cultivation is a very old practice (possibly started during the Mughal period) of growing vegetables on the bank or basin of a river after when flood level receded. Presently, in South Asian countries, cucurbitaceous vegetables are extensively being grown in river beds (called Diara land). These diara lands are formed and subjected to alluvion and diluvion action of perennial Himalayan Rivers and due to inundation caused by swollen rivers during South- West monsoon. Fresh silt and clay deposits received every year, during the monsoons months, especially in Himalayan Rivers, makes these lands suitable for growing vegetable crops, literally on sand. Even though upper layers of land seem unsuitable for growing crops, the subterranean moisture seeped from adjacent river streams, makes it possible to grow early crops. This system is unconnected with any other crop rotation and cucurbits are specially adapted to this system of growing due to their long tap root system. It can be treated as a kind of vegetables forcing where in the cucurbits are grown under sub- normal conditions, literally on sand, during winter months from November- February, especially in North and North- Western India. About 65% of total cucurbit cropped area of the country falls under riverbeds.

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Classification of Diara land according to cultivation.

1. Main riverbed consisting sand- cultivation is done during December to June. Main crop is Bitter gourd and Bottle gourd.

2. Main Diara is located on beds of river. The main crop is Cucumber, Luffa, Muskmelon, Watermelon and Pointed gourd.

3. Upland diara where continuous deposition occurs less flooded and not much different from non- diara lands. The main crop is Pointed gourd.

Advantages of Diara land cultivation.

There are several advantages of river bed cultivation, which includes: early yield, ease in irrigation, low cost, high net return per unit area and high yield, less manurial requirement due to high fertility, limited weed growth, easy in control of pest and disease by cultural, means, low cost labour facilities and additional crop.

Improved varieties for Diara land cultivation.

Diara land cultivation continues to be carried out with the traditional varieties and manner. Many improved varieties of bottle gourd, bitter gourd, cucumber, luffa etc. have been developed by various research institutes but they yet to be evaluated and adopted in diara lands.

Pits or Trench making and filling.

Pits or trenches or channels are prepared after the cessation of the southwest monsoon and recession of flood during October- November. The trenches are dug in North- West direction to manage the availability of moisture and higher temperature. The channel should be 50-60 cm wide and 45-90 cm deep depending on height of water table. Generally, 60cm to 90cm is the height of water table in riverbeds. Sometimes circular pits of about 35-45cm in diameter are prepared having a depth of 90cm. The pits/ trenches are filled manured with FYM or any other organic decomposed waste or oil cakes. Especially in North- Western India, where winter temperatures in Dec- Jan. go down to 1-2^OC, the protection is provided by planting of grass stubbles (probably of Saccharam sp.) This protection is has three fold uses: (i) it checks the sand drifting on the dug-up trenches and covering the hills sown with seeds, (ii) it provides partial through insufficient protection against chilly winds and (iii) this grass is available for spreading over the sand when the vines, especially when “Loo” or hot summer winds sweep these areas in May.

Manures and Fertilizers

Earlier no practices of manures/ fertilizers were used for diara land cultivation but now day’s farmers are slightly using. Since crop is taken only for one season, so organic manures and fertilizers are used. Well-decomposed FYM or compost, groundnut or caster cake is given in the first application. River silt is generally used to enhance receptivity of moisture in the feeding zone. These organic manures provide some kind of warmth to the germinating seeds or growing transplants. In some areas, single super phosphate urea or any standard fertilizer mixture is also given as a basal application but it is not known whether all the nitrogen is fully available or some amount is leached away. Application of 30-60 g urea per pit at the time of thinning will be useful. After 30-40 days of sowing, top dressing of 40 g urea is usually done in two split doses.

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Seed rate, seed treatment and seedling/ transplanting time

Seed rates varies according crops i.e. cucumber 2-3 kg, bitter gourd and bottle gourd 4-5 kg, sponge gourd and ridge gourd 3 kg for one hectare area. The seed sowing is generally done for early crop in first and second week of November and some time by first week of December. Late sowing is done in first week of January. The seeds are sown at a distance of 45-60 cm in the trench at a depth of 3 to 4 cm. Two seeds are generally sown at one place. If the temperature is very low, pre sprouted seeds are sown for smooth germination. For this, seeds should be pre soaked for 24 hours and latter on moist seed should be kept in gunny bag or covered with cotton cloth and kept for a week in warm place to get sprouted. Sometime growers wrap moisten seeds in gunny bags are caster leaves near the fiber burn for quick germination and in this way sprouting start after 5-6 days. As soon as sprouts are visible outside the seed coat they are planted. Generally, 3-4 pre- germinated seeds/hills in pits are sown. But in Andhra Pradesh one-week-old seedling are planted in pits or trench.

Irrigation

Most of the cucurbits are having deep root system, which enable the plant to survive in diara land. Irrigation is given through pitcher or left as usual. Sprinkler or trickle irrigation system may be quite beneficial because most of the nutrients applied by the farmers are leached away because of sandy soil, unless water level is managed.

Thatch Preparation

In northwest India, when winter temperature goes down to 1-2^OC in Dec- Jan, young plants require protection in early stage against low temperature and frost. The protection is provided by thatch screen made of locally available materials like Paddy straw, Saccharum grass or sugarcane leaves. In the month of February, grass is spread over the sand as a mulch and bedding. This helps to protect the young and tender plants/ fruits from heat of scorching sand during summer and also avoids drifting of vines during strong winds. Methods for using polyethylene cover as frost protection are yet to be developed. This will be economical and within the reach of ordinary growers.

Cropping Pattern

Cropping pattern usually practiced in riverbeds are Bottle gourd, Bitter gourd, Cucumber and Sponge gourd in North India, Ridge gourd in Rajasthan, M.P. and U.P. and Pointed gourd in Bihar.

Weed Management

In diara land areas major weeds are Polygonum sp., Euphorbia hirta, Eclipta prostrata, Sida sp., and Fimbristlylis dichotoma etc. these weeds can be eradicated manually or by pulling, since soil is quite loosened due to excess sands. No weedicide should be used because it may mix with running water of river and may prove hazardous to human animal and fishes etc.

Harvesting of Fruits and Yield

In Cucurbits harvesting should be done when fruits are quite tender and edible. Kartoli, Kakrol and pointed gourd start flowering after 50, 60 and 80 days of transplanting, respectively. Generally, after 8-10 nodes, every nodes bear’s fruits 30-35, 28.35, 15-18 days after flowering. Edible mature fruits should be harvested at 2-3 days interval, otherwise, quality deterioration start and fruits hardened due to seed maturity continuous harvesting can be done end of June to end of October. Potential yield of various vegetables is given in Table-1.

Table-1 Crop duration and yield of cucurbitaceous vegetables in diara lands

S.No.	Vegetables	Planting Time	Harvesting Time	Average Yield (q/ha)
1	Bottle gourd	Nov-Dec	March-July	200-350
2	Bitter gourd	Feb-March	May-July	100-150
3	Pointed gourd	Nov-Dec	March-July	350-400
4	Ridge gourd	Apr-May	June-July	100-200
5	Sponge gourd	Jan-Feb	April-May	100-200
6	Cucumber	Jan-Feb	March-June	225-250

Some general guidelines have been followed out according to the local and distance marketing in different crops is as follows in the table-2

Table-2: Important considerations for harvesting/marketing

S.No.	Crops	Harvesting	Test method	Stage of fruit	Remark
1	Cucumber	60-70 days after sowing	Anthesis duration	Tender green fruit	Optimum length 20­25 cm (depending upon variety/ consumers demand)
2	Bitter gourd	55-100 days after seed sowing (depending upon variety)	Anthesis duration	Tender green fruit	Optimum length 20-25 cm
3	Pointed gourd	80-90 days after transplanting	Anthesis duration	Green fruits having tender seeds	Optimum length 20-25 cm
4	Ivy gourd	Tender immature fruits	Anthesis duration	Green fruits having tender seeds	Optimum length 20-25 cm
5	Ash gourd	75-125 days after sowing	Anthesis duration	Full mature stage	White wax deposition on skin
6	Bottle gourd	60-100 days after sowing 12-15 days after fruit setting	Pressing the skin and little pubescence persisting on the skin Nail test	Light green colour	Seed should be soft, if examined in transverse section
7	Luffa species	55-60 days after sowing, 6-7 days after anthesis	Anthesis duration	Fruit should not turn fibrous and picking should be done earlier	Picking at 4-5 days interval

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