Department of Geography, P.R.M.S. Mahavidyalaya, Baragari, Bankura, West Bengal, India. E-mail: kuntalchattorak@gmail.com
Online published on 21 March, 2018.
Bankura district of West Bengal is one of the important production and trading zone of Pumpkin in India. Pumpkin production is quite profitable in the most favourable agroecological environment of South Bankura, even more than the dominating crop, paddy. The Cost-Benefit ratio of Paddy is 1: 2.5 to 1: 3 whereas it is 1: 1.2 to 1: 1.13 for Pumpkin. Vegetable cultivation especially Pumpkin cultivation has gained importance as a cash crop.
Pumpkins are directly sold from the fields to the local middle-man and transported to some specific location, preferable along the roadsides. From these points commodity is transferred to inter-district or inter-state businessmen. This is a double-step value addition process within the locality. Small farmers could not participate in direct trading and there is a problem of communication and reliability with the inter-state or inter-districts traders. It is observed that 16% to 22% value is added in the first step within the locality and 65% to 75% added subsequently up to the retail markets. Trading through ‘Kissan Mandi’ may be useful in this regard.
Excess usage of fertilizer increases the production cost in one hand and destroys soil health on the other. The overall money loss for excess retain the information as N, P and K fertilizers is Rs. 3, 155.50 per hec. (8% to 10% of total production cost). The seeds are almost indigenous local varieties and there is a great scope to increase the profit through hybrid Pumpkin cultivation if proper knowledge is supplied and diffused among the farmer community.
