Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Mar 4: Black pepper is normally grown as an inter crop. Its plant is allowed to grow around the stems of trees like areca nut, coconut etc. However, in some countries, this is also grown as the main crop. In the recent experiments, the system of growing black pepper over lifeless objects like cement poles has also come into vogue. Ganapati Vaidya from Ampar has forayed into a new kind of pepper cultivation by making certain changes in the process of allowing the pepper plant to grow over cement pipe and undertaking this cultivation in an acre of land.

Vaidya thought of cultivating black pepper independently. He has followed an altogether different model for this cultivation. He has planted ten-foot high cement pipes by maintaining a gap of eight feet between them, and fixed wire mesh with a radius of one foot around the poles. He has filled powdered coconut husk into the meshes, mixed trichoderma in it and planted transplanted pepper twig on three directions on the ground. He sprays water on the plants by fixing butterfly sprinkler at a height of ten feet.

The black pepper plants have grown into robust, lush green veins in one year. As coconut husk powder has been spread around the pipes, it helps to maintain moisture. The plants grow into healthy and robust plants. As water is sprayed from above, the leaves get wet and help in the growth of plants. The plants growth within a year has been beyond expectations. Some of them have spread up to eight feet. Once they reach a height of ten feet, their ends are snipped-off to see that they do not growth further. This helps in harvesting black pepper.

Ganapati Vaidya has chosen Kariamunda species of black pepper for growing. He has planted about 500 plants. However, his plants have been affected by withering disease as a result of which many plants have been destroyed. With the following of plant preservation methods, the disease has now come under control.

There are major differences between the method in which the plants are allowed to grow over trees and growing it as a single crop. Even if one gets a minimum of five kilograms of black pepper from each of these poles, making a profit at the current market price of Rs 300 per keg is found to be difficult. As all the expenses including maintenance, manure, water, preservation methods etc go entirely towards black pepper cultivation, expenses in this method of cultivation would be heavy. People will require huge amount of funds to undertake such experiments. But when one experiments with cultivation, he gets mental satisfaction. Experiments like these contribute to the betterment of farming methods. Vaidya deserves to be appreciated for adopting the method of cultivation followed in Israel by using the same techniques here.

There are question marks over the profitability aspects of black pepper cultivation as the main crop when current market rate of black pepper is taken into account. Ganapati Vaidya is interested in undertaking new experiments in agriculture. He is egged on by the desire to do something new. He also is involved with religious matters and has in-depth interest in cultivation.

Ganapati Vaidya says that all the pepper plants in his field have finely grown over the poles. He confesses that the withering disease has inflicted heavy loss on him. He pointed out that the species of black pepper used by him was said to be disease resistant but still his crop was infected by disease. He says that he plans to opt for another species when growing pepper again.