India is fast losing its status as a leading producer and exporter of pepper, also known as "black gold", as production and cultivated area of this spice variety have dwindled. Grown mostly on the slopes of Western Ghats in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, cultivation base of pepper has come down sharply in the last decade hitting production and export. According to pepper growers and traders, factors ranging from vagaries of climate to afflictions wilting pepper vines, contributed to fall in production and shrinkage of cultivated area. technical analysis software free download charting software
Statistics of the
International Pepper Community (IPC) show the area under pepper cultivation in
India dwindled from 218,670 hectares in 2001 to 182,000 hectares in 2010. In
contrast, the cultivation base and production in countries like Vietnam and
China increased during the period, giving stiff competition to India. With the cultivated area shrinking steadily in
India, pepper production also fell to 50,000 tons by 2010 from 79,000 ten years
ago. In Kerala alone, area under pepper cultivation fell from 172,182 Ha to
85,335 Ha in a single year from 2010-11 and production plummeted to 37989 tons
from 45267 tonnes, according to the state's Economic Review. best technical analysis software for Indian stock market
According to Spices Board, export of Indian pepper in 2012-13 came down by 40 per cent compared to the previous year. While the country shipped 26,700 tonnes of pepper in 2011-12, exports fell to 16,000 tonnes in 2012-13. Ironically, this happened in a year when the export of spices from India marked a record 22 per cent growth crossing Rs 10,000 crore mark as per the Spices Board figures. "This certainly is a worrying trend, which requires some urgent measures to support farmers. We have certain schemes for pepper under the National Horticulture Mission," a Spices Board official said. According to farmers, who mostly grow pepper as an inter- crop, production suffered from afflictions like root-wilt and slow-wilt and also price fluctuation, forcing them to abandon the enterprise in prime pepper areas like Wayanad and Idukki. charting softwareIndia mcx buy sell signal software
According to market
analysts, despite the reputation for its high quality, Indian pepper has been
facing stiff competition from countries like Vietnam where cultivation is taken
up on commercial scale and the inputs, including labour, are cheaper. "It
is time that we took some pro-active steps like promotion of pepper as a mono
crop by providing institutional support to farmers," said Philip
Kuruvilla, chairman of World Space Organisation, a platform for all
stakeholders of the spice industry from producer to processor. "It is true
that pepper has been grown as an inter-crop in Kerala. But strategic shift is
necessary to arrest the downtrend," Kurivilla said. Pushing high value
produce like organically grown pepper could also boost export, he said. technical lanalysis software for Indian stock market free
Source : Business-Standard