With an objective of promoting production of exotic vegetables in the North Karnataka region, the University of Horticulture Sciences, Bagalkot, has launched an initiative to introduce exotic vegetables among farmers here.
The university, which is, on a pilot basis, cultivating these vegetables under controlled atmosphere (a poly-house), has been holding events to educate farmers about the economic importance of growing these vegetables. The university has been cultivating foreign vegetables such as broccoli, parsley, English cucumber, Chinese cabbage, red cabbage and colour capsicum.
“Growing these vegetables is not a difficult task. They are cultivated as normal vegetables; however, they should be grown in a poly-house as they do not grow under direct sunlight,” says Vasant Ganiger, Professor in Vegetable Science of the university.
Prof. Ganiger, who was present at the Krishi Mela being organised by Regional Agriculture Research Station of University of Agriculture Sciences, Dharwad, here on Sunday, said that these exotic vegetables had a great demand in star hotels.
For preparing various cuisines, star hotels use these foreign vegetables. Thus, considering the demand, farmers could cultivate these vegetable here also.
Prof. Ganiger, however, said that as cultivation requires higher investment and better marketing facility, it is difficult to convince farmers to take up cultivation of these vegetables in their farms.
“However, interested farmers can make some efforts which would eventually give them higher returns if they could find buyers,” he said.
He said that the university would help them collect required information about the cultivating methods and availability of market for these exotic vegetables, he said and added that seeds or saplings for cultivating these vegetables could be purchased from agencies.
