After long effort, the Raikhali Hill Agricultural Research Station in Kaptai upazila, Rangamati, has succeeded with BARI Bottle Gourd-4. The variety had been grown there for a long time, but this is the first large-scale harvest at the station.

The station was set up in 1976 on about 100 acres in Raikhali union, at the mouth of the Karnaphuli river, to develop crop varieties and farming technologies suited to the hills.

Across wide trellises in the fields, bottle gourds of different sizes now hang from the vines. Acting chief scientific officer Dr Muhammad Ziaur Rahman said the variety's main features are heat tolerance and year-round cultivation, making it suitable for the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The dark green fruit has whitish marks. Each plant bears 10 to 12 fruits averaging about 2.5 kg.

The gourds are 42 to 45 cm long and 12 to 13 cm in diameter. They can be harvested 70 to 80 days after transplanting, and plants live 130 to 150 days. Yield is 80 to 85 tonnes per hectare.

The variety suits all parts of Bangladesh as well as the hills. For a summer crop it can be sown as an early crop at the end of Falgun, or seed can be sown in Chaitra and seedlings transplanted in Baishakh.

The station holds a large stock of seed, and local farmers can collect seed or seedlings free of charge, Dr Ziaur Rahman said. Local farmers expect good profits, as demand for bottle gourd lasts all year.

Source: Jagonews24 (reported by Arman Khan). First published in Bengali on The Agro News.