‘Organic’ strides in north-east reap gold

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Kochi, April 9: The Spices Board’s initiative to promote production of organic spices, even as far as the North East, involving the marginal farmers and weaker sections of the society is generating positive results.

The Destitute Women’s Upliftment Society in Imphal has succeeded in getting export order for 40 tonne of organically-grown ginger. Board chairman CJ Jose said that three years ago the board initiated steps to promote the production of organic spices like ginger and turmeric in the North-Eastern region. It was lending support to several small farmer and women groups to grow spices organically. This would fetch the farmers a better margin. The board was also procuring spices directly from small farmers for its ‘Flavourit brand’, he added.

Farmers in the area had been experiencing problems in drying and storing the material, specially after harvest, which was forcing the farmers to sell their produce at very low prices. This often forced the farmers to abandon the crop.

As the temperature in the region is not favourable for sun-drying the spices, the traditional drying method that uses firewood for drying large cardamom in Sikkim, could not be used for ginger or turmeric as the material would lose its flavour and colour. With some technical changes, new driers were introduced by the board, where the products would not come into direct contact with smoke and heat. These driers are now being used by the farmers and their groups.

Drying ginger was also a labour-intensive job as it involved peeling of the material. But the board was helping the growers in acquiring equipment for slicing ginger for making drying easier.

It is estimated that the north-east accounts for nearly 1.5 lakh tonne of the country’s 3.25 lakh tonne annual ginger production with Meghalaya accounting for around 50,000 tonne. Arunachal, Mizoram and Sikkim are presently producing around 30-35,000 tonne of ginger. Last year, the total export of ginger stood at 13,000 tonne.

In the case of turmeric, the total production in north-east is estimated to be 12,000 tonne while the country’s annual production is 5.25 lakh tonne with Andhra Pradesh alone producing around 3.2 lakh tonne.

The board also plans to support a spice processing venture in the Idukki district in Kerala that would extract oleoresin from cardamom and pepper.