Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges &
Opportunities during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
Methodology
The present study is comprised of study
and documentation of indigenously
developed conservation technologies for
musk melon cultivation in the reservoir
basin and its comparison with
conventional methods of musk melon
cultivation. For this purpose, we selected
10 farmers practicing musk melon
cultivation in the hamawas dam with
indigenous knowledge (25.7343 0 North
latitude and 73.3620 0 East longitudes) and
10 farmers practicing conventional
practice of musk melon on the
conventional agricultural land in Naya
Gaon village Sojat Tehsil (25.9238 0 North
latitude and 73.6651 0 East longitudes) Pali
District (Fig). The data on all the
agronomical practices and plant growth,
development and yield attributes were recorded for consecutively for three years (2017, 2018
and 2019) from the field of all the selected farmers. From each location, five average size
muskmelon plant and fruits were selected in each year, and data were recorded on different
parameters and economics were calculated on the basis of cost of cultivation and price of
fruit prevailing during the period. The mean of the data was subjected to analysis of variance
(ANOVA) followed by post hoc test at 95% for comparing the significance of difference.
Results
Fig : Location map of the study area
The growth and yield of the musk melon was influenced by both type of the cultivation
practice. The growth, development and fruit yield was found significantly higher in
conventional methods of cultivation as compared to traditional conservational practices. The
conventional method had higher growth, number of fruits per vine (14.7), fruit weight (391.1
g) and fruit yield per plant (5.77 kg) as compared to conservational practices in the reservoir
basin (Table 1, 2 and 3) resulting into higher yield and gross as well as net returns per unit
area. The mean fruits yield per hectare of muskmelon was about 25.16 % higher (96.2 t/ha) as
compared to conservation practices (71.99 t/ha) over three years of observation. The gross
return was Rs. 5,28,070/ha under conventional methods of cultivation while it was Rs.
3,48,220/ha under conservation methods of cultivation over three years of observation. The
higher yield under conventional system might be attributed to good plant growth due to
278 | Page
Climate resilient agriculture for risk mitigation