To avoid export rejection, the Spices Board has established a Quality Improvement Training Program for farmers to assist them avoid hazardous chemicals in the production of crops like cardamom. According to Spices Board sources, there have been some cases of rejection in the past, but the Board's authorities were frequently following up on the issues to help farmers overcome the difficulty.
The Quality Improvement Training Programs will be organized on a regular basis in order to assist farmers and raise knowledge about the use of chemicals in spice cultivation.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) has started a three-year initiative to experiment with organic cardamom farming. According to KAU officials, the initiative has completed a year of operations and the findings will be thoroughly examined.
The local price of cardamom continued to vary, according to a senior scientist at the institution, and the only option to achieve better pricing was to expand exports significantly. He also mentioned that the organic cardamom farming project has so far shown positive results.
Project Involving Teamwork
The Spices Board, the Rubber Board, and the Digital University of Kerala recently announced a collaboration to build spatial models of soil nutrients in cardamom tracts and an Android-based mobile application for cardamom producers to follow site-specific, need-based fertilizer recommendations.
The initiative was started by the Indian Cardamom Research Institute, Myladumpara, the Spices Board's research arm, in collaboration with the Rubber Research Institute of India, the Rubber Board, and the Digital University's Geospatial Analytics Division.
According to the Spices Board's forecast for 2020-21, the crop would cover about 69,000 hectares in the nation, yielding 22,500 tonnes. Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu produce the majority of the country's small cardamom. Kerala accounts for most of the output. The crop is grown on around 50,000 hectares in the state, with an annual average yield of approximately 20,000 tonnes. The majority of cardamom output in the state comes from small farms.
