Savour this sense

PS Sreekantan Thampi, Deputy Director (Publicity), Spices Board India, discusses the newer breeds that are being being developed in India to remain globally competitive and thwart competition

India had over the last few decades developed over 200 varieties of spices. But this is not surprising since India is one of those countries where organised research on spices is taking place on a massive scale. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research and its functional organisations like the Indian Institute of Spices Research, Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, the various State Agricultural Universities, the Indian Cardamom Research Institute of the Spices Board and scores of private sector companies have indulged in the task of identifying a good resource base for production. The different agro-climatic zones in the country have virtually made the subcontinent into a specialised production zone for spices. Western India is turned to become the production for spice seeds, and the South of India has become the home for spices of the major group like black pepper, chillies, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, seed spices like cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and now also vanilla. The traditional mode of cultivation is confined to traditionally known varieties and has given stable production results. But the advent of changing patterns in climate, emergence of viral and fungal infections and diseases have lately made spices farming, an unremunerative business proposition. There exists of lot of research gaps and this is the main reason for many of the varieties becoming unpopular. The observations and the results from the trial plots are not always the same as in the farmer’s field. However, it is required to ensure that the yield gaps are minimised to the maximum levels possible. The sub continent had been a virtual storehouse for...

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