Which brinjal (baingan) variety is best for high yield and market demand in West Bengal?

In our part of Nadia the long thin purple type sells fastest in the morning market, but the round ones get a better price for some festival cooking. I keep a little of both so I am not stuck if one type drops in price.

If bacterial wilt has hit your field before, variety choice alone will not save you. I graft the desired variety onto a wild brinjal rootstock that tolerates wilt, which our KVK demonstrated. It is extra work but in wilt prone plots it kept the plants standing through the season.

Buy certified seed and keep the bill. I once bought cheap loose seed from a roadside shop and got a mixed crop with uneven fruit shape that the trader rejected. The few rupees saved on seed cost me much more at sale.

Hybrids gave me higher and more uniform fruit but the seed is costly and I cannot save my own seed from them. For a steady local market I sometimes keep an open pollinated variety so I can hold back some seed. Work out which suits your scale before buying.

Whatever variety you pick, plan for shoot and fruit borer because it hits all of them in our area. Variety tolerance helps a little but it is not a substitute for clipping the bored shoots and the rest of the IPM steps.

Ask for a variety with some bacterial wilt tolerance if your area is humid and wilt prone like parts of Nadia. My susceptible variety collapsed in patches during the wet spell. The buyer cared about fruit colour, but the field would not stand without wilt tolerance first.