Comparative assessment of popular turmeric cultivars in coastal zone of south 24 Parganas district of West Bengal under STI technique

Abstract

An experiment was carried out with important cultivars of turmeric (Suranjana, Suvarna, Suguna and local cultivar) during 2015-16 to 2017-18 to identify the superior cultivar under STI- Sustainable Turmeric Initiative technique and quantification of curcumin content using HPTLC standard protocol. The test cultivars showed variability in respect of their growth characters, production potentiality and quality aspects. The study reflected that the incorporation of high quantum of nutrients along with organic manures under STI technique might fulfill the nutritional demand and effectively increased the yield and quality of these promising cultivars. The experiment revealed that Suranjana exhibited maximum plant height (88.1 cm), number of leaves/plant (7.7), average weight of rhizome per plant (873 g) and curcumin content (19.96 mg/g). Higher B:C ratio reflected with the yield performance and key quality aspects Suranjana cultivar was found as a good alternative to the local cultivar practiced by the farmers of South 24 Parganas district. The other three cultivars were also found superior over the traditional cultivar in respect of yield attributing characters and curcumin contents.