Ginger is a common vegetable and uses in daily cooking food with spices and condiments in the kitchen. We can grow ginger in a small area and get more profit per Kanal because its normal rate per kg remains more than 400 rupees. Its medicinal importance is a plus point for the patients. In this article, I will discuss and mention every single step of ginger growing techniques. There are the following outlines of the whole article,
- Site selection and climate
- Land preparation
- Planting time and method of cultivation
- Irrigation and fertilizer
- Feasibility report
- Conclusion
Site selection and ginger growing season in Pakistan
Soil that has good drainage and more water-holding capacity is suitable for ginger growing conditions in other words, sandy loam soil is most suitable. Direct sunlight is not appropriate but partial shade is necessary. Ginger grows best where more warm temperature with continuous humidity is present in the soil but clay soil which holds more water will be destructive for the ginger growing environment, so an artificial shady environment could be prepared which is very easy for 1 Kanal.
Land preparation
Before land preparation, choose a place that nears the shade like in orchards like citrus, or mango because these orchards have bigger shady trees with larger canopy areas. Soil should be well pulverized. For this purpose, 2 months earlier prepare your soil and mix soil with well-rotten farmyard manure and plowed thoroughly, allowing your soil to decompose the farmyard manure.
After every 15 days plowed the soil and then irrigate so that decomposition becomes more successful with microorganisms. The ginger crop needs well-pulverized soil with more water with “wattar” conditions. Prepare the bed in such a way that its width should be 3ft, a bed-to-bed distance should be 1 ft, and row to row distance 2.5 ft, and the plant-to-plant distance should be 1 ft.
Ginger growing time and its method of cultivation
In Pakistan, especially Punjab ginger growing areas must be cultivated from March to the end of April, which is the most suitable planting time. For planting purposes, simply purchase the sprouted ginger from the market and cut it into pieces with 1-2 eye buds. There are the following aspects for selecting the seed,
- Ginger should be completely nourished with more fibrous roots
- The smaller-scale cover should be on the ginger seed
- Do not select if ginger is already cut off
- Ginger should be smaller in size
After selecting the seed prepare it for sprouting by placing it on the sand layer and covering it with another sand layer and keep moist until ginger sprouts within 2-3 weeks. After sprouting cut the seed into pieces in such a manner that each piece should contain 1-2 buds with it. These pieces should be planted with a plant-to-plant distance of 1 ft.
Irrigation and fertilizer
Ginger is water sensitive crop, if the soil is more clayey then water will be more in the roots resultantly in crop loss similarly if the soil is more sandy then there will be less water-holding capacity and water will not be available to the plant, so sandy loam soil with good water holding and drainage capacity with the shady area will provide the healthy and optimum environment for a plant.
Water requirement is very crucial and important for ginger, as I described earlier that soil with good drainage and water holding capacity is suitable. The ginger crop needs more water in “wattar” condition then the plant will be more active and grow best.
So, irrigation is most important not higher or less, as ginger will not tolerate water stress. So keep in mind to meet the optimum criteria for ginger water requirement according to the different factors like the season, temperature, air, etc.
Fertilizers, 150 kg of single super phosphate, 150kg ammonium phosphate, 100 kg of potassium sulfate, and 64kg of humic acid are recommended for the ginger crop. Apply one kind of fertilizer after every 15 days the interval with 10 kg and 5 kg of humic acid with flood irrigation per acre.
It is also recommended that from August to December until crop harvesting, NPK fertilizer with a 20:20:60 ratio should be applied in spray form. There are a few things that should be kept under consideration, are following,
- Do not apply fertilizer in spray formulation at hot temperatures on a day.
- Always spray when there is early in the morning when the plant leaves to keep moisture or evening time when the temperature gets lower.
Feasibility report
There is more than 2000 plant capacity per Kanal. Each plant produces 4-7 kg of fruit, therefore from the normal market price as 500 Rs. / Kg its yield and profit can be estimated up to more than 50 lakhs.
1 plant = 5 kg of yield
2000 plant = 5 × 2000 = 10,000 kg
1 kg = 500 Rs.
10, 000 kg = 10, 000 × 500 = 5, 000, 000 Rs./
This is the above estimated earning from 1 Kanal, now expenditures from 1 Kanal,
The seed rate for 1 Kanal is 100-120 kg so seed purchasing expenditure will be more than 60 thousand, shady environment and other expenditures are estimated up to 1 lakh the 1.5 lakh is normal expenditure per Kanal so profit can be calculated which is still enough higher more than 47 lakh rupees.
This is just a theoretical way to calculate and just gives you an idea that how it is profitable once you are established as a successful ginger grower.
Conclusion
- Sandy loam soil is suitable and favorable for the ginger crop.
- Ginger crops need a partially shady environment with few hours of sunlight.
- Ginger could be grown across the country except for more sandy soil, more clayey soil, salty, and rising water table soil.
- In Punjab, it is grown from March to the end of April.
- The ginger crop needs more water with ‘wattar’ condition and can be grown in mango, the citrus orchard was sparse of shade is present.
- Ginger is a highly demanding crop with higher market rates which leads to a higher profit for the grower.
- It is almost of the ten-month crop. The different experienced growers said that ginger has no disease except in a few cases where root diseases like nematode issues can be solved by recommendation of agriculture plant pathology departments.
- Farmers should be encouraged to grow ginger so that they can get the ginger profit at home and enhance the domestic economy share and decrease the import from other countries.
I hope this article helps you a lot. Give a comment below for your views about this article.