Organic cultivation of high yielding turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) cultivars: a viable alternative to enhance rhizome productivity, profitability, quality and resource-use efficiency in monkey–menace areas of north-western Himalayas

Abstract

Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) is a major spice crop in India in general and north-western (NW) Himalayas in particular where it is grown mostly organic by default using biennial local strains having low productivity. This crop is becoming an alternate crop in monkey–menace areas in NW Himalayas transferring into gigantic fallow-lands otherwise. There is a dire need to boost turmeric productivity in the region by introducing high yielding turmeric cultivars (HYTCs). Thus, an extensive ‘On–farm’ experimentation was done at 10 locations in 6 monkey–menace affected community-development-blocks (CBDs) (Sadar, Sundernagar, Dharampur, Gopalpur, Seraj and Gohar) of the randomly selected district–Mandi of the randomly selected Himalayan province–Himachal Pradesh as the study area. For this purpose, two newly released annually harvested HYTCs (Palam Pitamber and Palam Lalima) alongwith a widely grown local strain ‘Suketi Haldi’ in NW Himalayas (as check), were planted alongwith organic manure i.e. FYM @ 20 t ha–1 on oven dry weight basis. Mean data of two years revealed that Palam Pitamber resulted in highest rhizome yield (32.94 t ha–1) followed by Palam Lalima (32.35 t ha–1) compared to biennially harvested ‘Suketi Haldi’ (12.45 t ha–1). Likewise, Palam Pitamber resulted in highest net returns and net B: C ratio (▪ 416,548 ha–1; 5.38) followed by Palam Lalima and Suketi Haldi, respectively. The curcumin content was higher in ‘Suketi Haldi’ (5.18%), but the curcumin yield was significantly higher in Palam Pitamber and Palam Lalima. The monetary-efficiency indices revealed that organic turmeric cultivation using HYTCs may fetch about 1243–1270 ▪ ha−1 day−1 to the Himalayan farmers. Overall, the turmeric rhizome yield was enhanced by about three–folds, profitability by 3–4 folds, resource-use efficiency (RUE) by 2–3 folds in terms of production– and monetary efficiency, water-use efficiency and partial factor productivity of applied nutrients (NPK) by the adoption of HYTCs coupled with FYM @ 20 t ha–1 over ‘Suketi Haldi’. Higher technology adoption rate (72–98%) and net income gains (2.3–2.5 folds) in the study area advocated for employing ‘Participatory-mode’ adaptive research methodologies following intensive technology transfer programme in remote hill agro-ecologies. In nutshell, the newly developed HYTCs exhibited great potential in boosting the turmeric productivity, profitability, curcumin yield and RUE vis-à-vis wider adaptability in monkey–menace areas to improve rural livelihoods and make organic turmeric cultivation a promising agri–entrepreneurship in NW Himalayas. [Display omitted]