Abu Lau: High yielding variety of bottle gourd

Chapainawabganj Horticulture Centre has found a breed of bottle gourd which grows faster and gives better yield than other varieties.

Named ‘Abu Lau’, the bottle gourd variety was developed after four years of research at the Chapainawabganj Horticulture Centre.

The Department of Agricultural Extension is promoting the special variety of bottle gourd among vegetable farmers.

Habibur Rahman, a farmer, said that he made a profit of Tk 43,000 growing ‘Abu Lau’ on five bighas of land.

“I have made a good profit growing the variety of bottle gourd. It doesn’t require any pesticide,” said Habibur.

Chapainawabganj Horticulture Centre deputy director Saifur Rahman who advised Habibur to cultivate ‘Abu Lau’, said that the main difference between the variety and general bottle gourds is it does not require artificial pollination.

And so, the variety yields double the common bottle gourd. One ‘Abu Lau’ weighs around one to two kilograms, is deep green in colour, tasty, tender when cooked, and has few seeds.

The variety is commercially feasible. This is why the agricultural extension department has begun a campaign programme to promote the variety.

So far, the department has distributed ‘Abu Lau’ plants to some 300 farmers of Balugram, Ghughudima, Gobortola, Mohadanga and other villages of Chapainawabganj.

Saifur Rahman said he first came across ‘Abu Lau’ cultivating by vegetable farmers of Rajshahi’s Mohonpur upazila.

Seeing its surplus yield, Saifur Rahman grew an interest to study the variety and found that ‘Abu Lau’ grows around 70 per cent female flowers and the rest are male flowers and it does not need artificial pollination.

Saifur Rahman said that the variety was first introduced to Mohonpur by a farmer Abu. From there, the variety got its name as ‘Abu Lau’.