Biodiversity among cucurbits in hot arid region of Rajasthan

Abstract

In India, hot arid zone is spread over 31.7 million ha area and the maximum in western Rajasthan (19.62 million ha). The hot arid region is characterized by very low and variable rainfall (100-450 mm), very high potential evapo-transpiration rate, intense solar radiations (320-619/ cm2/day), high wind velocity (20 km/hr), high infiltration (9 cm/hr), extremes of temperature (0 to 48oC), high soil salinity, unavailability of ground water, etc. which limit the scope of high productivity of vegetable crops. The family Cucurbitaceae includes about 118 genera and 825 species, many of which are economically important crops, notably those of the genera are Cucumis, Cucurbita, Citrullus, Momordica, Lagenaria, Luffa, etc. Among cucurbits, watermelon, muskmelon, roundmelon, bottle gourd, ridge gourd, kachri, arya, longmelon, snapmelon, etc. are mainly grown in arid regions. A wide range of biodiversity exists among cucurbits in hot arid region of Rajasthan. Despite of prevalent harsh climatic conditions, the hot arid region possess wide biodiversity among cucurbits such as watermelon/mateera (Citrullus lanatus), kachri (Cucumis callosus), snapmelon/phoot (Cucumis melo var. momordica), longmelon/kakri (Cucumis melo var. utilissimus), roundmelon/tinda (Parecitrullus fistulosus), bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula), etc. The institute has collected, conserved and utilized the available genetic diversity of cucurbits and developed several varieties of cucurbits which are tolerant to high temperature. The important varieties comprised of AHK-119, AHK-200 (kachri), AHS-10, AHS-82 (snapmelon), AHW-19, AHW-65, Thar Manak (mateera), AHC-2, AHC-13 (kakdi), Thar Samridhi (bottle gourd), Thar Sheetal (longmelon), Thar Karni (ridge gourd), Thar Tapish (sponge gourd) and Thar Sundari (ivy gourd). The developed varieties are suitable for cultivation in hot arid region of Rajasthan under limited irrigation water facility by adopting suitable production technologies like drip irrigation, fertigation, tunnel cultivation, etc.