(Organised by CARI in collaboration with Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Board,
Calicut, Kerala)

Venue - Conference Hall, CARI, Port Blair

Introduction

India is known to the world as "land of spices" and it is one of the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices in the world. About 60 spices are grown out of 109 spices listed by ISO (International Organization for Standardization). Blessed with varied climatic conditions, almost all the states grow one or more apices. In India, spices are grown in an area of 26.58 lakh ha with an annual production of 36.54 lakh tonnes (2003-04). During 2005-06, the export of spices and spice products was estimated to be 3.20 lakh tonnes worth of Rs. 2295.25 crores. India has surpassed for the first time in the spices trade with the US $ 500 million mark during this period. More than 90% of the spices produced in the country are consumed domestically and the rest is exported in the form of raw and value- added products.

The states having major share on production are Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Karnataka, Gujarat and Kerala. North-Eastern region and Andaman and Nicobar Islands have also been identified as potential areas for growing spices in the country.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The total geographical area of the islands is 8249 sq. km., out of which over 86% area is covered by reserved and protected forests. About 50% of the forests have been earmarked for Tribal Reserves, National Parks, and Wildlife Sanctuaries, Mangroves occupy nearly 11% of the territory and only 6% is available for agriculture and plantation crops.

The climatic conditions prevailing in these islands are warm and humid with a temperature ranging between 22^o-32^oC. The relative humidity is relatively high (70 to 90%) with a rainfall of about 3000 mm annually from both South-West and North-East monsoons (annual average rainy days �154) from May to December with a short dry spell between January and April. The agro-climatic conditions prevailing in these islands are highly suitable for growing plantation and spice crops.

Present Status

The important spices that are cultivated in these islands are black pepper, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. Apart from this, chillies are grown under open conditions. Black pepper was introduced in 1973 on a small trial with Panniyur-1 hybrid, while tree spices were introduced during the 2nd and 3rd plan period on experimental basis in the island ecosystem.

At present, spices are grown in an area of 1420 ha, out of total cultivated area of 50,000 ha with a production of 1852 tonnes. Among the spices, black pepper occupies maximum area (550 ha), followed by ginger (399 ha), chillies (260 ha), tree spices (211 ha), which are mainly confined to Andaman District.

Black pepper: It is successfully grown under arecanut and coconut gardens. It is also grown in homestead garden on mango, jackfruit, and gliricidia as standard. Panniyur-1 is the most popular variety grown.

Clove: Clove is also grown under arecanut and coconut garden with a spacing of 5.4 x 5.4 m and 7.5 m 7.5 m respectively. It comes to flowering in 5 to 7 years. It is found to flower early in well managed plantation. A yield level of 0.5 to 3.0 kg/tree has been obtained. A regular and early bearing tree with an average yield of 3 kg/tree has been identified.

Introduction

Cinnamon: It is grown in arecanut and coconut garden as an intercrop. It is found to be drought hardy and can be harvested after third year of planting particularly when grown under open conditions. The yield varied from 0.150 to 0.5 kg/plant with an average productivity of 0.23 kg/plant in 10-year old plant.

Nutmeg: It is grown as an intercrop in coconut and arecanut gardens with a spacing of 7.5 m x 7.5 m and 5.4 x 5.4 m, respectively. It comes to bearing in 5 to 8 years. The yield varies from 200 to 300 nuts in 10 years old tree.

Ginger: It is generally grown in open fields for fresh market and seldom-planted under shade in arecanut or coconut plantation. Among seventeen varieties evaluated, No. 294, Thing lai don, Karakkal, No. 279, with a yield of 19.2, 12.02, 10.67, 9.75 and 9.25 tonnes/ha, respectively have been identified as promising.

Chilli: Two hundred chilli varieties/lines were evaluated for yield and bacterial wilt resistance since 3 years. The varieties such as LCA-334, BC-28, JCA-283, Surakta were found promising with a yield of 307.12, 241.24, 236.00, 201.77 tonnes/ha, respectively.

Cropping systems

Various cropping systems (multiple and multitier system) were tried by involving spices in combination with forest trees and plantation crops. The main combinations that emerged successfully are:

1. Forest trees + nutmeg or clove + robusta coffee + pepper.

2. Coconut + nutmeg or clove + robusta coffee

3. Arecanut + clove or nutmeg + pepper

Among the various combinations, crops like coconut, arecanut, clove and nutmeg have long gestation period (7-9 years), whereas coffee, cinnamon and pepper come to bearing in 3-4 years (Rao, 1991).

Constraints

Considering the potentiality of spices in this territory, adequate measures have to be taken up to bail out the hurdles faced by the farmers. The major constraints faced by the farmers of these islands are:

1. Lack of awareness: The farmers of these islands are not aware of recent developments on crop improvement, production, protection and cropping systems of spices.

2. Lack of availability of high quality planting materials: It is one of the major constraints faced by the farmers.

3. Lack of proper management practices: The productivity of spices is very low in bay islands compared to main land.

4. Pest and disease incidences: No major pest and diseases have been reported from these islands. However, snail causes considerable damage to young pepper vines. Slow wilt disease has been reported in the nursery as well as in main field. In recent times, pepper is affected by quick wilt. The IPM strategies developed in Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR), Calicut and CARI could be well adopted from the beginning.

5. Lack of infrastructure: Due to lack of processing unit, storage and marketing facilities for spices especially for ginger and turmeric, the farmers are not able to get remunerative price to their produce/products.

Introduction

Various research and development initiatives have been taken up to promote spices cultivation in these islands by Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI), Department of Agriculture, Andaman & Nicobar Islands Forest and Plantation Development Corporation Ltd., (ANIFPDCL) and Coconut Development Board (CDB) since its inception.

Work done at CARI/ Research Achievements

CARI has developed production technologies for various spice crops. In addition to that CARI has developed some models and estimated the economics of plantation based cropping (spices) systems, which have shown promising results (Suryanarayana et al., 2002; Shiva et al., 2003) as detailed below:

Various spice crops (clove, nutmeg, cinnamon and black pepper) have been tried under plantation crops at CARI.

Model � I: In coconut based farming (1 ha) with tree spices (clove, cinnamon and nutmeg) as intercrops, yield of 10, 671 numbers of coconut, 8.65 kg of clove, 800 numbers of nutmeg and 4.1 kg of cinnamon was obtained with gross and net return of Rs. 31, 073 and 12, 260/ha, respectively.

Model � II: Under arecanut garden, black pepper was trained on arecanut as standard and tree spices were intercropped in an area of 0.5 ha. A yield of 2, 70, 000 numbers of arecanut, 21.8 kg black pepper, 36.3 kg cinnamon and 0.13 kg clove was obtained. In this cropping system, a net return of Rs. 89, 416 was realized.

Model � III: In this model, arecanut with different spice crops were maintained in an area of 0.15 ha, which produced 32, 500 numbers of arecanut, 4.5 kg clove, 13.3 kg cinnamon and 4 kg bay leaf with gross and net return of Rs. 73, 900/ha and 21,040/ha, respectively. However, during 2000-2001, a net return of Rs. 57,933/ha was obtained.

Future Strategy

1. The area under spices cultivation may be expanded by utilizing the fallow land, homesteads and hilly lands.

2. 2. Spices should be intercropped in the existing coconut/arecanut/ oil palm plantations.

3. 'Bush pepper' can be encouraged to cultivate in home garden and also as intercrop under plantation crops along with Garcinia.

4. Production and supply of planting materials of high quality improved varieties.

5. 'Plant Quarantine Unit' should be set up in the airport in order to prevent the disease spread in the fragile ecosystem while introducing the planting materials.

6. Infrastructure facilities such as storage and processing units and marketing should be set up to avoid market glut and also to get remunerative price for spices.

7. Adoption of improved package of practices for cultivation of spices.

Conclusion

Keeping in view of the above said discussion, it appears that Andaman and Nicobar Islands have a great potential for growing spices despite of the constraints and problems beset with the crops. There is wide scope for intensive cultivation of spices in the existing plantation crops (coconut/arecanut/oil palm), thereby augmenting the income of the farmers. Various organizations viz., CARI, Dept. of Agriculture, CDB and ANIFPDCL should take concerted R&D efforts for the spices development in the union territory.

The extension workers also have a greater role to play in dissemination/refinement of technology and increasing spices production in these islands.

References

Rao, M.R.N. (1991). Prospects of nutmeg, clove and cinnamon cultivation in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indian Cocoa, Arecanut and Spices Journal 14 (3): 118-120.

Shiva K. N., Suryanarayana, M.A., R.P. Medhi and Tamil Selvan, M. (2003). Problems and Prospects of Spices Cultivation in Bay Islands. Indian J. Arecanut, Spices and Med. Plants, 5(2): 49-54.

Suryanarayana, M.A., R.P. Medhi and S.P.S. Ahlawat (2002). Research achievements of spices in A & N Islands. Paper presented in the National Consultative Meeting on "Accelerated Production and Export of Spices", organised by Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development, at Hotel Fortune, Calicut, 29-30 May 2002.