Faizabad Parwal-1
Listed as Faizabad Parwal-1 among promising pointed gourd varieties; the name points to Faizabad in eastern Uttar Pradesh. We found no release notice, fruit description, trial or yield figure for it.
Quick facts
- Type
- Vine/root cutting
- Season
- All seasons
- Starts bearing
- Not published for this variety; ICAR examples for the Swarna varieties: first picking 4–6 months after an October planting
- Seed rate
- Vine cuttings, with one male plant for ten female plants. The ICAR Puri example used 1,750 plants an acre
- Expected yield
- No variety figure published; ICAR-IIVR gives 230 q/ha for its Kashi varieties as a benchmark
- Suitable soil
- Loam
- Disease resistance
- No variety-specific disease record found
- Release
- Name points to Faizabad and Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology; no release notice or year found
Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.
About this variety
Faizabad Parwal-1 is a pointed gourd variety named in cultivation guides, which list Faizabad Parwal-1, -3 and -4 among the promising varieties. The name points to Faizabad in eastern Uttar Pradesh and to Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, but we found no release notice, year, fruit description, trial or yield figure for any of the Faizabad lines. A cultivation slide deck also notes that pointed gourd does not do well in heavy soil. Pointed gourd is grown from vine cuttings and is dioecious, so a field needs one male plant for every ten female plants. For eastern Uttar Pradesh, ICAR-IIVR at Varanasi offers its own Kashi Alankar, Kashi Suphal and Kashi Amulya.
Should you pick this variety?
Choose Faizabad Parwal-1 only if it is already grown around you and your buyers know it. A cultivation slide deck lists Faizabad Parwal-1, -3 and -4 among promising pointed gourd varieties, and the name points to Faizabad in eastern Uttar Pradesh, where Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology is based. We found no release notice, year, fruit description, trial or yield figure for any of them. At an ICAR-IIVR field day in 2019, ICAR's Deputy Director General said eastern Uttar Pradesh has great potential for pointed gourd, but the area under it was shrinking because local cultivars gave low yields and carried more disease. The institute offered three of its own varieties averaging 230 quintals a hectare. If you want documented yield, compare those or Swarna Alaukik with Faizabad Parwal-1 in a small trial.
Sowing & cultivation
- Seed rateVine cuttings, with one male plant for ten female plants. The ICAR Puri example used 1,750 plants an acre
- Spacing1.5 x 1.5 m under a trellis with mulching (ICAR Puri example); 2 x 1 m in the Bhubaneswar trial
Advantages & considerations
Why farmers may choose it
- Already grown in eastern Uttar Pradesh, so cuttings and buyers may be easy to find.
- Grown from the same vine cuttings as every pointed gourd, so ICAR trellis and mulching practice applies.
Things to consider
- No release notice, yield figure, disease record or fruit description found.
- At a 2019 ICAR-IIVR field day, local cultivars in eastern Uttar Pradesh were said to give low yields and carry more disease; check whether your Faizabad Parwal-1 stock is clean.
Suitable regions
States this variety is recommended for — check locally, since a state can have more than one recommended zone.
- Uttar Pradesh
Eastern Uttar Pradesh: what ICAR said in 2019
At a pointed gourd field day at Haripur (Kaniyar) village, Badagaon block, Varanasi, on 21 June 2019, ICAR's Deputy Director General (Horticultural Science) stressed that eastern Uttar Pradesh, and Varanasi, Mirzapur, Ghazipur and Ballia in particular, has great potential to grow pointed gourd. But the area was shrinking, he said, because the local cultivars gave low yields and had more disease. The Head of IIVR's Crop Improvement Division said the institute had released three promising varieties, Kashi Alankar, Kashi Suphal and Kashi Amulya, with average productivity of 230 quintals a hectare, widely accepted by farmers in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
That statement is about local cultivars in general, not about Faizabad Parwal-1, and nothing in it condemns or praises the Faizabad lines. What it gives you is a benchmark: 230 quintals a hectare is 23 tonnes, close to the 25 to 30 tonnes ICAR gives for the Swarna group. If your Faizabad Parwal-1 vines give well under that after a full second season, the cause may be disease in the planting stock, poor drainage in heavy soil, or too few male plants, not the name on the label.
Can you keep your own planting material?
This crop is raised from cuttings, not from seed, so you can take your own planting material. Take cuttings only from healthy, well-grown plants that are true to the variety, and never from one that showed disease — a cutting carries its mother plant with it. Where a nursery or a government farm sells clean planting material, that is the safer start.
How it compares with other varieties
Every Pointed Gourd (Parwal) variety with a page on this site, side by side. The row for this page is highlighted.
| Variety | Best for | Starts bearing | Yield | States |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Faizabad Parwal-1this page | Eastern Uttar Pradesh farmers whose local nursery stocks it; compare with a newer variety | Not published for this variety; ICAR examples for the Swarna varieties: first picking 4–6 months after an October planting | No variety figure published; ICAR-IIVR gives 230 q/ha for its Kashi varieties as a benchmark | Uttar Pradesh |
| Faizabad Parwal-4 | Uttar Pradesh farmers whose nursery stocks it; test it before planting a large block | Not published for this variety; ICAR examples for the Swarna varieties: first picking 4–6 months after an October planting | No variety figure published; ICAR-IIVR gives 230 q/ha for its Kashi varieties as a benchmark | Uttar Pradesh |
| Rajendra Parwal-1 | Bihar farmers whose local nursery stocks it and who can see the mother vines in fruit | Not published for this variety; ICAR examples for the Swarna varieties: first picking 4–6 months after an October planting | No variety figure published; ICAR gives 25–30 t/ha for the Swarna varieties as a benchmark | Bihar |
| Rajendra Parwal-2 | Bihar farmers who can verify the vines in fruit; compare it with a Swarna block | Not published for this variety; ICAR examples for the Swarna varieties: first picking 4–6 months after an October planting | No variety figure published; ICAR gives 25–30 t/ha for the Swarna varieties as a benchmark | Bihar |
| Swarna Alaukik | Soft-seeded table and sweet-making fruit; eastern plateau and the Odisha coast | First picking about 4–6 months after an October planting; fruits February to October (ICAR examples) | 25–30 t/ha average for the Swarna varieties (ICAR); 107 q from one acre at Puri, Odisha, in 2020 | Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar |
| Swarna Rekha | Buyers who want a striped fruit; eastern plateau and Odisha | First picking about 4–6 months after an October planting; fruits February to October (ICAR examples) | 21.10 t/ha mean for Rekha with Suruchi in the 46-genotype Ranchi trial (2021-23); ICAR gives 25–30 t/ha for the three Swarna varieties | Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar |
| Swarna Suruchi | A plain light-green fruit from the Ranchi centre; ask for a trial block first | First picking about 4–6 months after an October planting; fruits February to October (ICAR examples) | 21.10 t/ha mean for Suruchi with Rekha in the 46-genotype Ranchi trial (2021-23); ICAR gives 25–30 t/ha for the three Swarna varieties | Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar |
Tools for this crop
The numbers you need next: how much seed to buy, whether the lot germinates, what the fertilizer bill looks like and what Pointed Gourd (Parwal) is selling for.
- Seed Rate CalculatorHow much seed your Pointed Gourd (Parwal) plot needs, corrected for the germination of the lot you bought.
- Seed Variety FinderFilter every Pointed Gourd (Parwal) variety on this site by state, season, duration and soil.
- Fertilizer CalculatorTurn the NPK recommendation for Pointed Gourd (Parwal) into bags of urea, DAP and MOP for your field size.
- Crop Profit CalculatorPut your seed, labour and input costs against the yield you expect from this variety.
- Mandi Price CheckerToday's Pointed Gourd (Parwal) rate in your nearest mandi, before you fix a price with a trader.
Subsidy and government support
Schemes that help with the cost of Pointed Gourd (Parwal) seed or planting material. Rules and the application route are on each scheme page.
Frequently asked questions
What do Faizabad Parwal-1, -3 and -4 mean?
A cultivation slide deck lists Faizabad Parwal-1, -3 and -4 as three separate promising varieties. The name points to Faizabad in eastern Uttar Pradesh, where Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology is based, but we found no source that describes the fruit, yield or release of any of the three, or says how they differ. If a nursery sells "Faizabad Parwal" without a number, ask which one it is and see fruiting vines before you pay.
What shape and colour is a Faizabad Parwal-1 fruit?
We found no published description of its fruit. Pointed gourd fruit varies a great deal: the Bhubaneswar trial recorded colours from light to dark green, striped to unstriped, and shapes from round to oblong, with fruit weights of 14.31 to 37.98 g and lengths of 4.17 to 8.73 cm. So do not trust a shape claim from a leaflet. Look at fruit on the mother vines and ask your buyer which colour and size he pays for.
Should I plant Faizabad Parwal-1 or one of the IIVR Kashi varieties?
ICAR-IIVR says its Kashi Alankar, Kashi Suphal and Kashi Amulya average 230 quintals a hectare and are widely accepted by farmers in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which is a documented figure the Faizabad lines lack. They are also not in this registry yet, so we cannot give you their traits here. A sound plan is to put a strip of each, plus Swarna Alaukik, side by side for one full season, weigh each picking, and keep what pays best.
How do I lay out male and female vines in an acre?
Keep 1 male vine for every 10 female vines, which is the ratio the 2024 Ranchi paper gives. In an acre of 1,750 plants, as at the ICAR Puri farm, that is about 160 male plants and 1,590 female ones. Spread the male plants evenly through the block so that pollen reaches every female vine. Mark the males with a tag and note it down, because the sexes look alike until flowering.
Sourced from: ICAR-IIVR, Varanasi organizes Pointed Gourd Field Day-cum-Kisan Gosthi, 21 June 2019 — ICAR, Cultivation practices of pointed gourd — slide deck listing promising varieties (secondary source; names only), Genetic diversity in pointed gourd genotypes under eastern plateau and hill region — Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 94(7), 2024 (ICAR-RCER, Ranchi), Phenotypic diversity analysis in pointed gourd — Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative Report 33-34, 2010-11 (CHES Bhubaneswar, ICAR-IIHR; includes Rajendra Parwal), Shri Chandan Kumar Khuntia: a successful farmer-entrepreneur — ICAR (trellis, mulching, fruit the market rejected). editorial policy.