BY MERCY NAMFUKWE

FARMING enhances hands on activities to grow a variety of crops such as pumpkins and a well-developed farm can have the potential to supply all the nutrients needed for people especially in rural households for small scale farmers.

This pumpkins come with a lot of nutritional benefits for the consumer especially the children as helps in growth because of the calcium that is found in it including vitamin C in orange pumpkin also helps for eyesight for children.

Warrior pumpkin can be considered as one of the alternative crops that farmers can venture in aside from crops like maize and soybean because the beauty of the variety comes in two forms such the leaves (chibwawa) that can be used as vegetable and the fruit itself is edible for substitute for nshima.

Starke Ayres Zambia Limited Technical Consultant Kalunga Ben Kanga says the only challenge found in growing pumpkins is the diseases such as down mudu and powdery mudu especially during the rainy season can be averted using chemicals with copper based fungicides, noting that the varieties can also be affected by pests that can be prevented by pesticides.

“To eradicate the disease I therefore advise farmers to spray chemicals like copper count A at least twice every after 10 days to avoid the disease from developing resistance to the chemical,” he stated.

He added that now that the country is faced with the advent effects of climate it is important to use these chemicals because a farmer can notice other new diseases that has not been there in the past few years.

He explained that pumpkins are easy to grow as they require about 1.5 meters spacing between lines and a 50 centimeter between plants’ and therefore important to maintain five fruits per vine in order to have big fruits and increased yields that can take about 3 to 4 month for it to be ready for consumption.

The uniqueness of this variety is that it is a hybrid which does not require a lot of water and can only take a few months for it to be readily available for consumption adding that it can be harvested in three months and the leaves commonly known as “chibwawa” can be ready in three weeks as a vegetable compared to maize that can be harvested in five months’ time.

“In this time of climate change I advise farmers to grow variety of crops by intercropping as this will help to save time and give you money and can also provide a different type of food for consumption as you wait for other crops to mature,” he said.

He further added that anyone can grow this type of variety because it does not require more water noting that even a person with a backyard garden can venture as only two plants can produce enough fruits and leaves for household consumption.

“In terms of market access for this variety is about k45 and k50 per kg and most of these pumpkins are already  over 50 kg in terms of weight and a market access is easily accessible because a seller can either take their pumpkins at the supermarkets or sell them in a makeshift ( Kantemba)and earn more income.

Mr. Kalunga further added that the seeds for pumpkins are affordable with the cheapest ranging from k50 and bigger package amounting to k1,500 available on the market for farmers to purchase depending on the size of their preferred seed.  

Despite the effects of climate shocks affecting farmers in growing pumpkins, it is therefore important for farmers to invest in irrigation practices and also acquire knowledge from agricultural experts on how they can enhance production and productivity as also improve their business venture.  

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