A day for cucurbits in Myanmar

After two years of testing cucurbit lines in Myanmar, the Department of Agriculture Research organized a Cucurbit Open Field Day on 7 September 2017 to showcase WorldVeg improved bitter gourd and pumpkin lines.

Farmers evaluating eating quality of WorldVeg bitter gourd lines.

The Department of Agriculture Research (DAR) Myanmar has signed a partnership agreement with the World Vegetable Center for a project funded by Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Japan entitled “Selection of tropically-adapted lines of vegetables to improve productivity of the vegetable value chain in Southeast Asia.” In collaboration with WorldVeg, DAR evaluated WorldVeg bred tomato, chili pepper, bitter gourd and pumpkin lines.

After two years of testing cucurbit lines in Myanmar, DAR organized a Cucurbit Open Field Day on 7 September 2017 to showcase WorldVeg improved bitter gourd and pumpkin lines to 45 farmers from three villages (Ku Tha Pate, Zegone, and Mon Tae Khwin) around Nay Pyi Taw and to 20 DAR staff, including Dr. Maung Maung Tar, Director, DAR Division of Horticulture and Industrial Crops, and representatives from the Department of Agriculture (DOA) Myanmar and East-West Seed.

Farmers evaluated WorldVeg bitter gourd and pumpkin lines in the field and also sampled the harvested fruit to evaluate taste, color, texture and other qualities.

Two WorldVeg bitter gourd open-pollinated lines—AVBG1301 and AVBG1304—and one F1 hybrid, AVBG1601, received the highest ratings from the group. For pumpkin, WorldVeg AVPU1502, AVBG1504, AVBG1507 and AVBG1509 came out on top.  DAR will promote these cucurbit lines in Myanmar after completing multilocation trials in farmers’ fields.

Good eating: Participants taste test WorldVeg pumpkin lines.

 

Story and photos: Narinder Dhillon

 

Return to FRESH!

Checking pumpkin lines in the field.

Viewing bitter gourd lines in the field.