Pumpkin is a very popular vegetable crop grown widely in Bagladesh.It is grown both as commercial vegetable as well as home garden vegetable.Although it is normally cultivated by preparing beds but trellis cultivation and roof top cultivation of pumpkin is also common in Bangladesh. As pumpkin can be stored for 4 to 5 months easily and can be sold at higher price during the off season, local people have also established common store house for preserving pumpkin at few places of Bangladesh. Since during the harvesting period market glut situations occur this is why the pumpkin growers usually preserve their produces in the commonn store house and sell them when the price of pumpkins become higher. Being a very productive and nutritious crop and has storing advantage huge quantity of pumpkins are cultivated in Bagladesh every year.Considering the importance of pumpkin BRAC started a pumpkin variety development program at BRAC Agricultural Research & Development Centre, Gazipur and an Open Pollinated variety 'Baromashi' has been released for commercial production very recently. This pumpkin variety is performing very well within the country and in the African soil as well. #Suggested my you tube video link of hybrid pumpkin cultivation:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa-EtqcuBMc&t=10s

1. 1
‘Baromashi’ – a year round pumpkin variety developed at BRAC Agriculture Research &
Development Centre
Dr. Sitesh C. Biswas
An excellent open pollinated pumpkin variety “Baromashi” has been developed through selection at
BRAC Agricultural Research & Development Centre (BARDC) very recently. It has an outstanding fruit
bearing habit and this particular pumpkin variety is well adapted to all parts of Bangladesh. Normally, in
the Rabi season, its seeds are sown during the month of November to obtain better yield however it can
be cultivated almost throughout the year in Bangladeshi agro-climatic conditions. In the Kharif-1 season
usually its seeds are sown from mid March to mid April, and in this season usually “Baromashi”
pumpkins are grown on trellis to protect fruits from damage generally caused due to heavy rainfall in
the rainy season. Growing pumpkin in this season is more profitable as pumpkin fetches higher price in
this season. It’s both fresh and ripened fruits are sold in the market as good quality pumpkin. Trellis
cultivation of pumpkin in the monsoon season in the homesteads are very common in Bangladesh and
consumption of pumpkin vines of trellis grown pumpkin is a common practice. Since the plants of
‘Baromashi’ variety are robust and it has good spreading habit young vines of “Baromashi” plants are
easily consumed during the monsoon season. Its dark green coloured fresh fruits can be harvested just
70-80 days after transplantation while ripened fruits can be harvested at 110-120 days. Five to six Kg.
fruits of “Baromashi” variety are usually high round shaped and these fruits have much thicker flesh
compared to other local varieties. Flesh colour of its fruits is very much attractive due to deep orange
colour and the pumpkin is very tasty as its Brix value is around 7- 11. This “Baromashi” pumpkin variety
was released by BRAC during the year 2011-12 and since its seed production is also profitable the
pumpkin growers are showing interest to grow this pumpkin variety.
Main Characteristics of Baromashi:
1. Easy growing variety and its seedlings are very healthy and disease free.
2. More or less uniform robust plants with good spreading habit.
3. Early matured pumpkin variety and its plants exhibited high degree of femaleness.
4. Excellent fruit bearing capacity and fruits are dark green coloured rind at young stage and rind
colour become greenish brown at ripened stage.
5. Green fruits can be harvested after 65-70 days after transplantation and ripened fruits can be
harvested at 110-120 days.
6. Its fruits have thicker flesh and its deep orange to orange coloured flesh is very tasty when it is
cooked.
7. Yield per hectare is around 30-35 Mt.

2. 2
Table.1. Morphological characters of ‘Baromashi’ variety.
Values Main
vine
length
(cm)
No. of
branches/
plant
No. of
fruits/
plant
Fruit
length
(cm)
Fruit
girth
(cm)
Fruit
wt.
(gm)
Remarks
Mean
value
410.00 6.70 1.40 17.10 72.00 5.27 High round shaped fruits with
shallow ribs were noticed.
Flesh was found to be yellow
coloured and taste was also
found to be good.
Range (570-
425)
(5-8) (1-2) (16-18) (68-80 (4.5-6.5)
Table.2. Fruit & Seed Characteristics of Baromashi grown in the Rabi Season of 2016 – 2017
( From Grow Out Trial).
Sl.
no
Category Rind colour Fruit wt.
(Kg)
Flesh
type
Flesh
colour
Seed size Seed wt./fruit
(g)
Brix value
Fresh Ripened Fresh Dry
01 Early season
type
Dark green Brownish
green
3.37-
5.22
Thicker to
Medium
thick
Deep
orange
to
orange
Medium 54.00 33.00 6.00-11.00
Fig.1. Baromashi in BRAC Seed Fig.2. Baromashi of BARDC (at green fruit stage), Gazipur.
Farm( Dinajpur).

3. 3
Fig. 3. ‘Baromashi’ at ripened stage. Fig. 4. ‘Baromashi’ is being cultivated on trellis.
Fig.5. F1 Hybrid (Saint X Baromashi) using Baromashi Fig. 6. Another F1 Hybrid (MK X Baromashi)
as male parent. using as male parent.
Experimental findings have proven the fact that this variety is also a good combiner and using this
variety as parent excellent hybrids are obtained (Figs. 2 &3). It can also be mentioned here that as this
high yielding pumpkin variety is also performing well in the African soil (in the BRAC farm of Uganda) its
commercial seed production has also been started in that particular African country. Commercial
cultivation of ‘Baromashi’ variety has been started in Uganda during the year 2013-14 and now this
pumpkin variety has become a very popular pumpkin variety in Uganda as well.
Table.3. Comparative study between BRAC pumpkin hybrids (using ‘Baromashi’ as parent) and other
commercial hybrids.
Variety/lines Source Days
taken
to
opening
of 1st
female
flower
Days
taken
to 1st
picking
Days
taken
to final
picking
Fruit
wt./fruit
(Kg)
Fruit
shape
Sweet-
ness
Uniformity Reaction to
diseases &
pests
Yield
(Mt/acre)
Saint X
Baromashi
BARDC 60 84 136 3.50 High
round
Mode-
rate
More or less
uniform
Tolerant to
major
diseases
9.00

4. 4
and insects
MK X
Baromashi
BARDC 70 88 136 3.30 Semi
round
Mode-
rate
More or less
uniform
Tolerant to
major
diseases
and insects
13.00
Moyuri United
Seed
75 102 134 2.25 Round Mode-
rate
Good Less
tolerant to
major
diseases
and insects
5.00
Sweety Lal Teer 78 94 137 2.80 Round
flatte-
ned
Mode-
rate
Moderately
uniform
Tolerant to
major
diseases
and insects
13.00
Bangkok-1 Jamalpur
Seed
81 104 137 2.00 Round
flatte-
ned
Mode-
rate
Good Less
tolerant to
mosaic
virus
disease
9.00
Bangkok-2 Jamalpur
Seed
80 106 136 1.90 Round
flatte-
ned
Mode-
rate
Good Less
tolerant to
mosaic
virus
disease
8.00
Since pumpkins can be preserved for a longer period and more profit can be realized through supplying
pumpkins in the monsoon season when crisis of vegetables is usually observed in Bangladeshi vegetable
markets, now a days in Bangladesh, pumpkin cultivation has been increased significantly and after
potato harvesting pumpkin cultivation in the same plot has become a very common practice in the
northern parts of Bangladesh. Although hybrid pumpkin varieties are gradually becoming popular
among the Bangladeshi pumpkin growers, open pollinated varieties still have a very good demand due
to their lower price of seeds and reasonable yield. And another advantage of OP variety is that as the
seeds of the open pollinated varieties can be preserved for growing pumpkin in the successive years
without compromising yield and quality of the pumpkin a large section of farmers usually use open
pollinated variety.
Table.4. Seed production performance of OP pumpkin variety ‘Baromashi’.
Sl. no Year Quantity (Kg) Remarks
01 2013 68.00 At first Breeder’s seeds of almost high round
shaped and dark green coloured fresh fruit
bearing plants of ‘Baromashi’ was produced
at BARDC and these seeds were distributed to
the seed production division for the
production of foundation seed and finally
using foundation seed certified seeds were
produced.
02 2014 658.00 -
03 2015 1797.00 -

5. 5
04 2016 1260.00 -
05 2017 1000.00 (Target) In Grow Out Trial (GOT) at BARDC most of
the fruits were high round type with dark
green coloured rind.
Address:
Dr. Sitesh Chandra Biswas
Program Specialist (Vegetable Research)
BRAC Agricultural Research & Development Centre (BARDC)
Jogitola, BRRI, Joydebpur, Gazipur
BANGLADESH
Mobile Phone: +8801730349845
E-mail: sitesh.cb@brac.net