Mangalore,
March 9, 2009
During my recent visit to Beltangady, I visited a few villages nestled in the slopes and narrow valleys of the foothills of the Western Ghats. Many traditional farming families in the talukas of Bantwal, Beltangady and Karkala depend increasingly on commercial plantations such as rubber in the slopes of the hills, arecanuts and coconuts in the valleys and even vanilla cultivation, especially within the arecanut plantation.
Realizing the difficulties involved in rice cultivation, my brother-in-law, Victor Sequeira of Madantyar, has converted two of his fertile fields into arecanut and banana plantations. He also has rubber plantation which involves a lot of labour for himself and his son Vickin in tapping and collecting rubber resin and processing it into rubber sheets. Like the Sequeira family, many other families in the surrounding regions have ventured into the commercial plantation activity forsaking the ‘uneconomical’ rice cultivation. He also dabbled with the vanilla cultivation, but gradually neglected the ‘much attention needed’ venture as the vanilla prices crashed in the recent past from over Rs 1000/- per kilogram to just around Rs 100/-. The economic melt down has not even spared the rural agro-based economy.
Vanilla is the second most expensive spice traded in the world market. The essence is used in the preparation of ice creams, chocolates, cakes, pastries, puddings, soft drinks, pharmaceuticals, liquors and perfumery in order to provide fragrance, flavour and aroma. At present, synthetic products such as ethyl vanillin and synthetic vanillin are used for the above purpose. However, the discerning customers world over prefer the natural vanilla.
Natural vanillin is obtained from the cured pods (fruits) of the vanilla plant. Vanilla is a perennial creeper with oblong leaves and green stem producing aerial roots at the nodes and climbing up trees such as arecanut palms or other supports for its existence.
Vanilla has a curious history. During the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the early part of the sixteenth century, Bernal Diaz, an officer under Hernando Cortez, the Spanish conqueror of Mexico recognized the flavour and the great value of vanilla. During the early part of the seventeenth century, vanilla flavour was first introduced to France and England. Gradually, vanilla cultivation was introduced in other regions such as Mauritius in 1827, India in 1835 and Madagascar in 1848. Even though, vanilla originated in Mexico, now the major producing countries are Madagascar and Indonesia. . In India, parts of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, north eastern region and Andaman and Nicobar Islands are suitable for vanilla cultivation. Karnataka has the largest area under vanilla cultivation in the country.
Humid tropical climate with well distributed annual rain fall of 150- 300 cm and a temperature with range of 25- 32° C are the ideal conditions for the cultivation of vanilla. The topographic conditions preferred for the growth of vanilla include land with gentle slope, light porous soil and good drainage system. Vanilla grows best in unclear jungle areas or areca plantations where it gets filtered sunlight. There should be a dry period of 3 months for flowering.
Vanilla is usually cultivated by planting stem cuttings of 60-120 cm long. The plant requires support up to a height of about 135 cm. The vanilla creepers freely climb the areca nut palms. At a particular height the creeper has to be redirected to strong tyre strips or wires tied horizontally to the palms and rolled over it. During the flowering season the vanilla flowers have to be manually pollinated in order to have better results. The vanilla bean takes 10 to 12 months to reach full maturity.
The Karnataka Government has been encouraging vanilla cultivation in the state. It has proposed to set up an Agri Export Zone (AEZ) for cultivation of vanilla. The AEZ would cover districts of South Kanara, North Kanara, Udupi, Coorg, Chikmagalur, Hassan, Shimoga and Belgaum where vanilla is predominantly grown as an inter-crop with other plantation crops.
The AEZ would focus on providing quality planting material, training growers in cultivation and post harvest practices, organic farming, setting up of processing facilities, etc. The government has proposed to invest Rs 2.56 crore in the creation of AEZ over three years. It is estimated that presently 47 tones of vanilla is grown in about 1,081 hectares of land in the state. With the AEZ coming into operation, the state plans to increase the area of vanilla cultivation to around 1,500 hectares and triple the output to 150 tones by 2009-10. However, it would be difficult to meet this ambitious target as a large number of planters have either reduced or given up the cultivation of vanilla due to sharp fall in the price. The initial euphoria of attractive price has vanished with the global economic meltdown that has affected every segment of the global economy.
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