“Key Informant Survey” of Production, Value, Losses and ... - DfID

fodder purpose. He explained that plant hopper, leaf folders and stem borer mainly
attacks the paddy. Spraying insecticides viz., dichlorvos, monocrotophos, phorate
etc. is only way out of this problem, he said.
BAJRA He is growing this crop in summer as well as kharif for his own consumption. He
said that there is no any pest problem in this crop.
SESAMUM He is growing this oilseed crop for getting good market price, however he is
growing this crop in a small area (0.25 ha). He said that he doesn't face any pest
problem in sesamum.
#A010 DATE 15/4/4 TEAM JMS/RCJ. Total five acres. About 60 years old.
PRICES & WAGES He grows all bitter gourd. Prices here have slipped a little. Was
300rs for 20kg - a good price - now 220, even 180. Labour is short. Farmers are
offering 100/day but can't get takers.
GOURD He started growing about 20 years ago - before that cereals - pearl millet,
wheat, sesamum. He shifted because to a cash crop. 20 years ago the price was
Rs25/20kg, now it is 80-300, mean is 150, because of new varieties - vigro and sangro
(vigro is about 6" long, sangro bigger).
COST-BENEFIT He spends Rs45ooo/acre to set it up. After the pandal is up 15ooo in
subsequent years. 5ooo/bigha - each bigha is 1/3 acre. Yield is 300 quintals per acre
(each quintal 100kgs) @ Rs750/quintal = 75oooRs/acre {check this}. In fact about
60-70oooRs. So how long does the pandal last? The string needs replacing every year;
bamboo sticks 4 years; corner poles, the thick ones, only 2 years because of timber
and the termites get at them.
GOURDS Why bitter gourd rather than other gourds? Overall small gourd is better than
bitter, but in the last few years has had problems; ecological change, in the
atmosphere; small gourd has declined. Labour too - SG is more labour-intensive. BG
has a smaller number of fruits per KG than SG, so the labour needs to harvest on KG
are less. One worker in one day can harvest 300KG of BG but only 10KG of SG {?}. SG
is also infested more than BG with fruit fly.
VEGETABLES Why gourd rather than other vegetables? In Oct & Nov after Divali they
grow ghobi. So the whole pandal is taken down every year. Ghobi earns 30ooo net. So
cauliflower, BG and wheat are what they grow. Some use of fenugreek, but doesn't
fetch much - 15oooRs/acre. Why BG and ghobi? They are most remunerative. Why not grow
a spread of vegetables of different types? Because the prices of BG and SG are better
than other cucurbits. And they have medicinal qualities too. And if you have a number
of different cucurbits it causes problems. Why? BG and SG have the best price -
bottle gourd is less. What about tomato, sag, onion? Tomato has problems with ecology
- short-term and often fails because of ecology. Sometimes the yield is so excessive
nobody will buy it and it's fed to cows. Tomato gets Rs20 per carton of 20KG - a bad
price. What ecology problem? A virus. What short-term problem? No guarantee it will
yield - SG and BG produce over a longer period, so if there is a bad spell they can
still yield later. Tomato has a short cycle and so is vulnerable to periodic bad
patches more than gourds.
{RCJ is of the view there has been an increase in the knowledge of the role of BG in
diabetes which has increased demand among the old; also at weddings BG is almost
always served to counteract the huge quantities of sugar consumed.}
{So gourds are favoured because of the long fruiting season - this not only produces
a steady income but provides some risk-spreading against fluctuations in prices.
Gourds favoured because of long season but this entails access to a steady and
reliabel water supply: RCJ observes that Gourds are distinguished from other
IMFFI Semi-Structured Interview Survey - 16 of 66