National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)
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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Presently, in South Asian countries, majority of cucurbitaceous vegetables are extensively being grown in riverbeds (called diara land) for off season produce. Growing cucurbitaceous vegetables on river-beds or river basins constitute a distinct type of farming. River bed cultivation is a kind of vegetable forcing is being used in India facilitating off season production of cucurbitaceous vegetables, where cucurbits are grown in the river beds during winter season. It is a very old practice of growing cucurbits on bank or basin of the river during the dry season or on the land that is subject to annual flooding. Seasonally dry riverbeds are an under utilized resource that can be used for sustainable vegetable production. Climate change induced floods and the encroachment of riverbeds are silting over arable land and increasing the area of sandy riverbeds. These river beds are formed and subjected to alluvion and diluvion action of perennial Himalayan Rivers and due to inundation caused by swollen rivers during South-West monsoon. Vast tracks of riverbeds are dry and fallow during the period from October to May. Besides cucurbits, other high value crop like tomatoes is also successfully cultivated due to its deep root system. It can be treated as a kind of vegetables forcing where in the cucurbits are grown under sub-normal conditions, literally on sand, during winter months from November-February, especially in North and North-Western India. Riverbed farming can be used to increase household income and to improve the food security of landless and land poor households of India.
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