Report on

Experiential Learning Programme

On
“Commercial Horticulture”

Submitted to
Commercial Horticulture Unit
“Nursery Production Management”
Department of Horticulture
(Fruit & Fruit Technology)

Submitted by
Vipin Kumar
BAC/50/2015-16
Bihar Agricultural College, Sabour
S. No. Contents Page No.

1. Acknowledgement 2

2. Experiential Learning & its Objectives 3-4

3. Commercial Horticulture & its Objectives 5

4. Activities undertaken during ELP 6

5. Nursery Raising of Vegetables 7

6. Preparation of potting mixture 12

7. Preparation of protray 13

8. Seed treatment 14

9. Seedbed preparation 15

10. Nursery raising Chilli & Brinjal 16

11. Care & management of nursery 18

12. Stall in Kisan Mela 19

13. Benefit Cost Ratio 21

14. Package & practice of Cucumber 22

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my deep & sincere gratitude towards the

faculty of Commercial Horticulture (ELP) and the staff of
horticulture garden.

I am extremely grateful to Dr. Muneshwar Prasad, Dr.

Hidayatullah Mir & Dr. Manoj Kundu for their continued
support and motivation along with their expert practical guidance
throughout this program.

I would also take this opportunity to express my thankful

gratitude to Dr. Feza Ahmed for his enthusiastic and ever
encouraging presence on the plots and nurseries.

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 EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
The concept of EL is not really new. It was there in our culture much before the formal
education existing today. During the Gurukul Era, the Shishyas (Students) learned the
education by actively indulging in various activities under the supervision of the Guru
(Maestro) and not just memorizing it for passing in the examinations. Experiential education
is a philosophy and methodology in which educators purposefully engage with learners in
direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills and
clarify values.

Although, the present education system in Agricultural Universities focuses on hands on

experience, their skill and knowledge capabilities do not fill the requirements of the growing
private sector. They are unable to become true professionals who can analyse the real life
situation and manage field problems by providing appropriate solutions and become
confident in taking up self-employment. This demands to build practical skills and
entrepreneur spirit among the students besides preparing them with analytical concepts.

The word 'experiential' essentially means that learning and development are achieved
through personally determined experience and involvement, rather than on received teaching
or training, typically in group, by observation, listening, study of theory or hypothesis, or
some other transfer of skills or knowledge. Experiential learning is a business curriculum
related endeavour which is interactive (other than between teacher and pupil).

EL is for building (or reinforcing) skills in leadership and decision-making, individual

and team coordination, approach to problem solving and resolving conflicts, etc. The degree
of difficulty in this situation is very high and individuals and teams are encouraged to set and
achieve stretch goals. Carefully calibrated activities move participants to explore and
discover their own potential. Both activities and facilitation play a critical role in enhancing
team performance back at the workplace.

OBJECTIVES OF ELP
 To promote professional skills, entrepreneurship, knowledge and marketing skills
through meaningful hands on experience and working in project mode.

 To build confidence through end to end approach in product development.

 To acquire enterprise management capabilities including skills for project

development and execution, accountancy, marketing, etc.

 ELP gives an opportunity of Earning while Learning. The Educator or Professor

mainly acts as the manager for the students. Students get percentage of profit out of
the total profit made during the ELP.

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 COMMERCIAL HORTICULTURE
Horticulture has become a key driver for economic development in many states of the
country but one of the constraints is availability of planting material, poor yields and low
productivity, wider year to year fluctuations and poor quality of produce. The use of low
grade and poor quality planting materials is one of the major causes for low productivity.
This warrants proper planning to increase production and productivity for which trained
skilled human resources in horticulture are the need of the hour.
Through experiential learning on commercial horticulture, the students will produce quality
planting material of fruits, ornamentals and vegetable crops. Besides this, they will also
develop the managerial skills of entrepreneurship.

OBJECTIVES OF COMMERCIAL HORTICULTURE

a. To develop skill in producing quality planting material of fruit crops
b. To acquire skill in nursery production of commercially important ornamentals
c. Multiplication of ornamental plants to cater the need of landscape industry
d. To acquire skills in various activities of the protected cultivation of high value
vegetables and flowers
e. To develop enterprise management capability

ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN DURING ELP

 Nursery raising in polyhouse
 Puchase of certified seeds
 Preparation of potting mixture
 Seed treatment
 Preparation of protray
 Seed bed preparation
 Care and management of nurseries
 Irrigation
 Weeding
 Selling of prepared seedling at ELP stall during Kisan mela
 Package and practices of cucumber
 Irrigation management
 Weed management
 Staking
 Insect pest management
 Harvesting
 Grading & sorting
 Packaging
 Selling

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NURSERY RAISING
Purchase of certified seeds from Sai Krishi Kendra, Bhagalpur

In

this program 6 vegetable crops were selected to raise them in nurseries for the purpose of
selling them in Kisan Mela.
Following were the crops :

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 Cucumber (Cucumis sativus)
Seed Variety - Malini
Company - Seminis
Certification - Truthfully Labelled
Germination % - 70%(min)
Physical purity - 98%
Inert Matter - 2%
Genetic Purity - 95%
Treatment - Thiram

 Bottle Gourd (Lageneria siceraria)

Seed Variety - Sarita & Gola
Company - VNR & Insignia
Certification - Truthfully Labelled
Germination % - 65%(min)
Physical purity - 98%
Inert Matter - 2%
Genetic purity - 95%
Treatment - Thiram

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 Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia)
Seed Variety - Akash
Company - VNR
Certification - Truthfully Labelled
Germination % - 60%(min)
Physical purity - 98%
Inert Matter - 2%
Genetic Purity - 95%
Treatment - CAFTAR

 Sponge gourd (Luffa cylindrica )

Seed Variety - White Seeded F1
Company - Clause
Certification - Truthfully Labelled
Germination % - 70%(min)
Physical purity - 98%
Inert Matter - 2%
Genetic Purity - 95%
Treatment - Thiram

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  Chilli (Capsicum annum)
Variety - 305
Company - VNR
Genetic purity - 90%

 Brinjal (Solanum melongena)

Variety - 218
Company - VNR
Genetic purity - 90%
Physical purity - 98%
Wt. - 10g

Crops Cucumber Bottle Bitter Sponge Chilli Brinjal

gourd gourd gourd
Variety Malini Sarita Aakash F1 Hybrid VNR VNR
Chilli Brinjal21
(G49499)
305 8
Genetic 95% 95% 95% 95% 90% 90%
purity

Physical 98% 98% 98% 98% 98% 98%

purity

Germinatio 70% 60% 60% 70% 70% 70%

n

Weight 8.40g 10g 10 10g 10g 10g

No. of Seeds 308 92 900

Produced & MHPL VNR VNR CLAUSE VNR VNR

Marketed
By

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Preparation of potting mixture :
 Potting mixture was prepared by manually mixing coco peat and vermicompost in 1:1
ratio.
 Trichoderma application was also done @ recommended dose.

Preparation of Protray :
 After the potting mixture was prepared it was filled in the portray.
 Each pit was filled 3/4th of its volume with potting mixture of coco peat +
vermicompost + Trichoderma

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Seed treatment :
 Seed treatment refers to the application of fungicide, insecticide, or a combination of
both, to seeds so as to disinfect and disinfect them from seed-borne or soil-borne
pathogens and storage insects.
 Seed treatment was done using Bavistin @ 2g/kg of seed.

Seedbed preparation :
 Seedbed was prepared by breaking hard pan of soil.
 Soil was pulverised using khurpi, light irrigation, application of vermicompost + FYM
 The prepared seedbed was used for raising the nursery of chilli & brinjal.

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Nursery raising of Chilli & Brinjal :
 For nursery raising of chilli and brinjal the seed was levelled using a heavy rod and
then lines were made at regular spacing of 8-10 cm.
 Then the seeds were sown into the lines @ 50 seeds/line.
 A light spray of water (life saving irrigation) using rose can was done.
 The nursery was left to grow with regular irrigation, hand weeding.

Care & management of nursery :

Proper care of the nursery was done by ensuring the following;
 Regular and timely irrigation to the growing plants
 Manual weeding to reduce the weed pressure
 Protected environment of the polyhouse to prevent insect pest attack

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Selling of the seedlings through ELP Stall during Kisan Mela :
 Kisan mela was held at BAU Sabour from 23rd to 25th Februray 2019. This 3 day affair
provided ample opportunities of learning to us.
 Firstly, the seedlings were transported from polyhouse to our stall where the stall was
setup for the sale of seedlings.
 Our stall was inaugurated by Dr. Prem Kumar (Minister of Agriculture). He also
bought seedlings worth Rs. 500
 Our stall was appreciated by all the visitors including the dignitaries from other
universities, local people, farmers, scientists, etc.
 The seedlings were sold @ Rs. 4/plant
 Our stall received highest footfalls during the mela and due to this dedication and
phenomenal performance of our team ELP Commercial Horticulture Unit was
adjudged the 2nd best stall in the mela.

Media coverage
during Kisan Mela :

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 Benefit Cost Ratio (Kisan Mela)

Cost of seed Rs 2874

Cost of potting
 1200gm potting mix in a single tray
 600gm vermicompost + 600gm coco-peat
 Vermicompost (at rs 6/kg ) ; rs 3.6 / tray
 Coco-peat (at rs 220 / 5 kg block) soaked upto 3 timesweight in water : rs
8.8 /tray
 Cost of a single tray : 8.8 +3.6 : rs 12.4 /tray
 Total no of tray : 90
Total cost of potting mixture : 12.4*90 Rs 1206
1.25kg fibre bag Rs 350
2000 seedling cup Rs 400
Cost of seed production Rs 4830
Cost of tray sold (13*70) Rs 910
Gross income (2606 plants * rs 4/ plant ) Rs 10,424
B : C Ratio 1.816 : 1

Benefit Cost Ratio (Papaya)

Cost of seeds Rs. 4000
Total cost of potting mix Rs. 1000
Cost of seed production Rs. 5000
Gross income: 548 plants x Rs. 15/plant Rs. 8220
BC Ratio = Gross Income / Total cost = 8220 / 5000 1.644 : 1

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Package & Practice of Cucumber :
Botanical name : Cucumis sativus
Family : Cucurbitaceae
Chromosome No. (2n) = 24
Origin : India
Cucumber is a native of India.
Importance :
Rich source of vitamin B & C. Bitterness in cucumber is due to cucurbitacin (tetra cyclic
triterpenes)
Climate:
Warm season crop. Susceptible to extreme cold and frost. High humidity and short day
length promotes female flower production.

Temperature :
 Optimum temperature is 15-24 °C
 Higher the soil temperature, more rapidly seedlings emerge and are less vulnerable to
insects and damping-off.
 At 15°C, 9 to 16 days are required for seedlings to emerge. At 21°C, only 5 to 6 days
are required. Even after emergence, cucumbers remain sensitive to cold temperature.

Soil:
 Well drained sandy loam soils to heavy soils is ideal.
 Optimum pH 5.5 to 6.7

Seed rate : 2.5 – 3.5 kg per ha

Variety : Hybrid Malini
 No. of seed per packet - 319
 Germination percentage - 70%
 Physical purity - 98%
 Genetic purity - 95%
 Net wt. – 40 g
Nursery management :
 Nursery preparation was done on 21 January 2019
 Subsequent nurseries were prepared later as per the seed availability.

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Seed sowing and germination :
Since deep sowing delays the process of germination seed were sown at ½ ” depth.

Field preparation :
No field preparation was done.

Transplanting :
Transplanting was done during 1st week of March @ 2.5-4 cm depth, at 2 - 4 leaf stage.
Spacing : 1.0 m x 0.6 m

Staking :
Staking was done using bamboo stick and ropes to improve fruit quality and yield.
Irrigation:
Regular & light irrigation was provided to plants at all stages of growth.

Nutrient management : Only DAP was applied as basal dose during transplanting.

Plant protection :

Pest
1. Fruit fly ( Bactocera cucurbiteae )
a. Collect the affected fruits and destroy.
b. Application of Imidacloprid.

2. Red pumpkin beetle ( Raphidopalpa foveicollis )

a. Collection and destruction of beetles in early stage of infestation .

b. Dusting of 5% malathion @ 10 kg / ha.

c. Application of imidachloprid.

3. Leaf miner ( Liriomyza sativae )

a. Application of imidachloprid

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Weed management :

 Commonly found weeds : Parthenium, Cyperus, Cyanodon, Anagallis, Vangajar, etc.

 Manual weeding was done to keep weed population below ETL.

Harvesting:

 Cucumber crop  matures within 40 - 50 days and harvesting starts 45 - 55 days after
planting.
 Manual harvesting was done.
 We had harvested cucumber on daily basis of 1 – 2 kg per day.

Grading & Sorting:

 Freshly harvested cucumbers were sorted on the basis of their size & shape.
 It was graded according to their color, length, etc. and packed into plastic bags.

LEARNINGS FROM THE ELP COMMERCIAL HORTICULTURE:

 Practical exposure of running a small scale Nursery business
 Bottlenecks to be faced by agri-based SSBs(small scale business) & startups,
 Commercial Nursery raising & their management,
 Soil management & agronomic interventions

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