A field day cum Farmers- Scientists Interface Meeting for promotion of watermelon cv. Arka Shyama at Hampapuram village, Raptadu, Nantapur, Andhra Pradesh was conducted on 25.01.2021. The field day was conducted in the field of Sh. Chenna Reddy who has grown this variety in 1.5 acres. Teh program was chaired by Dr K Shiva Shankar, HoD, Basic Sciences and Dr K Madhavi Reddy, HoD, Vegetabel crops, IIHR. Mr Satish ADH and Mr. Ratnakumar, HO, Depart of Hortciculture, Govt of AP have also attendee the program. Dr. E Sreenivasa Rao, Principal Scientist & breeder of the variety welcomed all officials and farmers to the meeting and briefed about its attributes especially about the dark red flesh colour, sweetness and the advantage of being an open pollinated variety in icebox segment.
Farmer, Shri Chenna Reddy shared his experience about growing this variety. He briefed the audience that he was very happy with the quality of the fruit and expecting an yield of 20tons/acre. Around 60 farmers attended the meeting of which many are well experienced in cultivating watermelon crop. They said that Arka Shayma is on par with ruling private sector hybrids in all aspects and will help in reducing the seed cost and are willing to adopt the variety.
Later Dr Madhavi Reddy, HoD, Vegetable crops persuaded th farmers to form a FPO and requested horticultural department officials to assist in this regard. Finally, Dr KShiaShankar congratulated teh farmer for raining a successful crop and thanked him for popularising this IIHR variety. The program ended with a vote of thanks by Dr P Naresh, Scientist, Vegetable crops, ICAR-IIHR.
