Vol. 12, Issue 5 (2023)

Author(s):
Anand Mastiholi, Suhasini Chikkalaki, Venkatesh Dasar, Maheshwarappa HP, Sanjiv Duradundi and Satish BR

Abstract:
Natural farming is a holistic approach to meet the nutritious and chemical free food produce. Horticulture produce are highly perishable in nature and thus natural or organic farming approaches are emphasized since they are having good keeping quality than that of conventionally grown products. Field experiment was conducted at The Regional Horticulture Research and Extension Center, Kumbapur, Dharwad. Significantly the maximum number of fruits per plant were recorded in farmers practice treatment (167.63) and the minimum number of fruits per plant were observed in natural farming treatment (65.65). The maximum fruit length was recorded in package of practice and farmers practice treatment (4.24 & 4.23 cm) respectively. Organic and natural farming treatment were noticed significantly minimum fruit length (4.01 & 4.05 cm) respectively. The higher fruit yield (33.396 t/ha) was recorded in farmers practice treatment and the lower fruit yield (10.88 t/ha) was observed in natural farming treatment. Significantly higher fruit firmness (2.70 & 1.58 kg/cm² @ green & light red stages), TSS (4.58 ⁰ Brix) and acidity (1.06 mg/100 g) were recorded in natural farming treatment. Fruits grown under natural and organic farming were stored as long as 17.1 and 16.2 days respectively as compared to chemical farming treatments (6.7 and 6.6 days). Incidence of natural enemies were significantly higher in natural farming treatment at 30, 60 and harvest (1.95, 1.65 & 1.15 respectively). Significantly the higher gross (Rs. 6678), net returns (Rs. 435191) and higher benefit cost ratio (2.82) were recorded in farmers practice treatment.