Musk Melon Cultivation on Reservoir Basin: A Climate Smart and Profitable Farmer Practice in Arid Zone of Rajasthan

Small-holder farmers everywhere have been necessitated to develop location-specific knowledge and adaption techniques in order to maintain their livelihoods in uncertain ecosystems due to climate vulnerability and several stresses. The growing of muskmelon on the reservoir basin has also been made profitable by a climate-smart technique developed by local western Rajasthan farmers. The developed technology is primarily a conservation agriculture technique that includes the use of short-duration varieties, decreased tillage, low fertilizer inputs, no irrigation, and the use of locally accessible mulch to minimize evapotranspiration The findings indicated that musk melon production in the reservoir basin under conserved soil moisture (CMLI) with modest inputs had a minimum days taken to first flowering (29.70 days), first harvesting (82.40 days), high benefit-to-cost ratio (3.64) and net return per day (Rs. 2980 ha^-1) than the conventional method (AMHI) of cultivation in which days taken to first flowering (35.40 days), first harvesting (91.10 days), high benefit-to-cost ratio (2.94) and net return per day (Rs. 2646 ha^-1), which involved ample irrigation and inputs. In contrast to conventional cultivation practices, the high benefit cost ratio under conservational technology was mostly related to low cultivation costs as well as significant income from early fruit harvest.