The Hindu Business Line : Vanilla flavour tickles farmers in South

FARMERS in Kerala and Tamil Nadu are now taking up vanilla cultivation either replacing coffee in certain areas or as an intercrop in arecanut and coconut gardens, following in the footsteps of their Karnataka counterparts.

Besides, the fairly good demand for highly cured vanilla beans, unremunerative prices of coffee and arecanut have also motivated the farmers to move away from them.

The total area currently under the crop, according to Spices Board sources, is estimated to be around 2,000 hectares. However, they said, it could be more as many farmers have not registered with the board.

Given the tremendous market for this commodity, the board has already initiated action to make available the farmers with planting materials through private companies, NGOs and self-help groups.

The gestation period of vanilla is three years and the plants are now in different stages of growth. The board has an ambitious plan to bring 5,000 hectares under vanilla by the end of the current Plan period.

Vanilla production, which was about 6-8 tonne in 1999-2000, has gone up to about 65 tonne in 2001-02 and around 100 tonne in the last season, Mr Nagaraj Bhat of Karnataka-based Indian Spice Associates told Business Line.

However, lack of appropriate technology for growing and processing of vanilla, market information, research efforts and extension services have been identified as the stumbling blocks in development of vanilla as an alternative crop in the State, he said.

Meanwhile, a Vanilla Development Trust (VDT), a body of vanilla growers sponsored by the Syndicate Agriculture foundation, Hiriadka, with a total membership of 408 vanilla growers spread over seven districts of Karnataka, is providing its members services as technical know-how for cultivation, supply of plant material, training in pollination and curing and assisting the growers in finding suitable market. Many more growers' associations and self-help groups have come in to being in recent years, he said. The estimated area under vanilla cultivation in Karnataka is around 1,081 ha and it is being expanded to 2,500 ha by the year 2005.

According to Dr B.C. Suryanarayana, an expert who had conducted an extensive study of the crop, vanilla flavour industry was based on the processed beans of the vanilla plants. However, with the advent of chemical technology to produce vanillin/ethyl vanillin, the synthetic substitutes have taken over the use of vanilla beans. And yet, vanilla bean is still the most preferred food flavour spice.

The total area of vanilla cultivation in the world during the year 2001 was 40,846 ha and production was 5,583 tonnes. There has been no appreciable increase in area under vanilla cultivation in the traditional vanilla growing countries, according to an FAO report.

The major vanilla producing countries are Madagascar, Comoro, Indonesia, Mexico and the Reunion. Among these countries, Madagascar holds prominent position having a cultivated area of 25,550 ha under vanilla. Of late, Indonesia has started to produce more with a production of 2,102 t from 9,700 ha. Others are Mexico, China, Comoro, Reunion, Tonga, French Guiana, Malawi, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Guadeloupe, Kenya, Fiji Islands, Cook Islands and Turkey.

The import of vanillin and ethyl vanillin together to India during 2000-01 was 404 tonnes.

Even if only 10 per cent of import of these synthetic substitutes was replaced with natural product, the requirement of vanilla beans would be 2,020 tonnes at the rate of 2 per cent vanillin content. This is almost one half of the entire global production of vanilla beans. "This indicates the great potential for vanilla development in India", said Dr Suryanaryana.

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Vanilla flavour tickles farmers in South

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