Experts discuss ways to make cultivation of spices profitable

The three-day annual group meeting of the 35th All-India Coordinated Research Project on Spices started at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (HAU) on Tuesday.

The Deputy Director General (Horticulture) of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Dr SK Singh was the chief guest, while the meeting was chaired by the Vice Chancellor of the HAU Prof BR Kamboj.

Scientists from 40 All India Agricultural Research Project Centres are participating in this meeting being jointly organised by the Department of Vegetable Science of the HAU and Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Central Spices Research Institute, Kozhikode, Calicut, Kerala.

‘Need to promote natural farming’

• Scientists from 40 All-India Agricultural Research Project Centres are participating in the three-day meet.
• They were of the view that farmers could earn more profit than other crops by cultivating spice crops.
• They said natural farming should be promoted among farmers for spice cultivation.

Addressing the meeting, chief guest Dr Singh said more work needs to be done on the cultivation of spices from nursery to post-production processing in the field to make the cultivation of spices more profitable. He said farmers could earn more profit than other crops by cultivating spice crops. “Farmers need to be motivated to engage in farming by forming groups with the help of farmer producers’ organisations (FPOs). Due to changes in the climate, planning according to agro-climatic zones and cultivating improved varieties will give more benefits. He said that along with increasing production, there is also a need to improve the quality of spices so that there is no harm to health due to the use of spices,” he said. The ICAR has national-level institutes of spices working in Kozhikode and Ajmer. He also called for making farmers aware to promote natural farming in spice cultivation. He said recently 109 varieties of climate change tolerant and high-yielding crops were released, which included six varieties of spice crops.

HAU Vice Chancellor Dr Kamboj said spices not only added flavour and taste to the food but also enhance its quality and medicinal values.” India is also known as the ‘’Land of Spices’’ as it is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices and spice products. Indian spices are famous in the world. Out of 109 spices listed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), India produces 63 thanks to its diverse agro-climatic zones. Out of the total 63 spices grown in India, 20 are classified as seed spices whose dried seeds or fruits are used as spices and they contribute to about 45 per cent of the country’’s area and 18 per cent of the total spice production,” he informed.

The VC also stressed the need to formulate strategies to ensure national food and nutrition security by highlighting the challenges of the spice industry, which include declining productivity, soil health issues, microbial dynamics, climate change, food safety challenges, increasing problems of adulteration in spices. It is important to adopt modern technology to increase the production of spices. He emphasised on working in coordination to deal with various challenges, including climate change.

He said the three-day deliberations will help experts from different fields to give suggestions for future studies and research initiatives in spices.