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Vanilla, the new hope
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Rubber is doing quite badly, as also coconut. But vanilla cultivation is spreading in Ernakulam district and it could well be the next hope for the Kerala farmer, feels SURESH KUMAR
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WHEN KERALA farmers are feeling blue, with rubber, pepper and most of the other cash crops not doing too well, here's a crop to cheer them up. A crop that fetches money for its fruits (beans) as well as its stem. It's vanilla, a late entrant into the Kerala farm fold.
Thanks to the rise in global demand and the efforts of the Spices Board, vanilla, the commercial orchid, has been gradually replacing other cash crops in some parts of Kerala for the last five years.
The vanilla beans now fetch Rs 750 a kg to the farmer. The cured, processed vanilla extract called vanillin is priced at a whopping Rs.11,000 per kg. Five kg of vanilla beans is equivalent to 1 kg of processed vanilla.
Ramamangalam, Muvattupuzha, Perumbavoor, Kalady and Malayattoor in Ernakulam
District, have the largest vanilla plantations in Kerala. These places have shown a sudden spurt in the cultivation of vanilla in the last two years. "The global demand per year is 71,400 tonnes of vanilla. But India produces only 300-350 tonnes. The average cultivation of vanilla in India is in 1,000 hectare, where as it has to be enhanced to 3,500 hectare," says Dr. K.B.Kumar, an
agricultural scientist and technical consultant of ISRA Agro tech Systems Pvt, Kochi.
The average vanillin production in India is 320 kg per hectare. Indonesia, Malaysia, Comoro, Madagascar, Mexico etc. are the leading cultivatiors of vanilla. USA alone imports 1,491 tonnes of vanillin, valued at $38 million per year. Germany, U.K, Netherlands, Canada etc. are other nations
importing vanillin on a large scale.
A bunch of 15 beans weigh about 1kg. A bean of 6 inches (16cm) is considered as prime.
The vanilla extract, vanillin, is primarily used in baking and for as an ice cream flavour. Due to increase in price and shortage of cultivation, artificial synthetic vanilla replaced pure natural vanilla in recent years. Vanillin is used in certain medicines also. Crops like coconut, arecanut, rubber, and pepper etc has caused Keralite farmers much heartburn and brought in lower and lower income. But vanilla seems promising. The beans and the stem fetch money. The stem can be sold, which can be used for replanting. The vanilla vines for replanting can be sold even before it flowers. This is an added advantage, since other crops cannot be utilised likewise.
But farmers and experts in the field are cautious, as too much production of vanilla will naturally reduce the price, resulting in losses, as in the case of rubber.
"As an intercrop, it will not affect the farmer commercially. Still there is such a risk factor in the future," says Dr. Kumar.
Vanilla production in Madagascar and Indonesia, the leading producers, was low during the last two years. Naturally the demand for Indian vanillin was on the increase abroad. So far, vanilla has been disease-free as far as Kerala is concerned.
Easy availability of water, vast area of land for cultivation etc. may be the reason for the spread of vanilla cultivation in and around Ramamangalam. (It is on the banks of the Muvattupuzha river.)
M.V Scaria (61), of Ramamangalam, who won second prize in the All India Vanilla competition
constituted by the Spices Board during 1999 says, "For me, it was disease free and economically viable, compared to other crops. Unlike other crops, marketing of vanilla is not at all a problem. Companies like A.V.T, Cadilla etc will buy the yield."
Scaria had planted 1000 vines of vanilla as intercrop in one acre of land. It was in1991, that the Spices Board gave away 400 vines to Scaria for planting. The beans produced in 1995 fetched him Rs. 144 per kg. Vanilla could still be the Kerala farmer's saviour.
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