Despite forecasts of higher production in certain spice crops this year, scientists feel that the country's millions of small farmers are yet to enjoy the fruits of their research. Quite a large number of the farmers are not even aware of the most popular black pepper variety -- panniyur --developed around 35 years ago.

Though the All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Spices (AICRPS), based in Kozhikode, has been able to release a total of 60 high yielding, disease resistant spice varieties over the last three decades, the information transfer has not taken place to a great extent. Out of these, 19 are in black pepper, seven in cardamom, five in ginger, 16 in turmeric, five in cumin, 16 in coriander, four in fennel, six in fenugreek and two in cinnamon.

AICRPS co-ordinatorPN Ravindran said a major reason for this situation was the lack of sufficient quality planting materials to be distributed to the farmers.

"An average Indian farmer cultivating spice crops still resorts to the age-old agricultural practices using the locally available planting materials," he points out. According to him, an effective propaganda work has not been taken up by extension agencies such as Spices Board, state agricultural departments and the Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development (DASD).

Most of the agricultural officers have not received adequate training in recent developments. While the research institutes provide the nucleus planting materials, the state agricultural farms are vested with the mandate of large-scale production of planting materials.

However, the horticultural farms are ill-equipped to meet the demand due to lack of infrastructure. Even those planting materials supplied will be of low yield and susceptible to pest attack as it is procured from local suppliers."Sometimes, planting materials thus procured get dumped and dried up in the Krishibhavans for want of takers as they are distributed after the planting season".

Many of them will not have roots or leaves with the result that the survival rate of these plants is negligible. The reluctance on the part of the farmers to buy cuttings at the rate of Rs 3.50 also is cited as another reason. The DASD is extending a subsidy of 50 paise per bag.

On the other hand, the research institutes have not much capacity. For example, while Kerala requires 10 million cuttings of black pepper a year, IISR and its research station at Panniyur at Kannur have a total capacity of 7.6 lakh cuttings only.

The other agency producing nucleus planting materials of black pepper varieties in the state, Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) too is ill-equipped to meet the demand.

Though the Spices Board had experimented with the certified nurseries for large-scale multiplication of planting materials by giving individual farmerstraining five years ago, it was not successful. However, DASD sources claim that the shortage of planting materials had been due to the non-availability of nucleus planting materials from IISR and KAU. They pointed out that farmers might be unwilling to go for replantation with high yielding varieties since pepper takes at least five to 10 years to give a stable yield compared to paddy or rubber.

According to Ravindran, if there is an increase in spices production in the country, it is mainly due to the entry of large scale cultivators. While the small landholders are unable to go for plant protection measures and fertilisers, these farmers, mainly in the southern states, are cultivating pepper and cardamom just as coffee and tea.

Black pepper and cardamom are extensively cultivated in large areas as an inter-crop in coffee and tea plantations in places such as Coorgu in Karnataka, Wayanad and Idukki in Kerala and Anamalai in Tamil Nadu, following the spurt in prices over the last few years. Ravindransaid this new trend could be the main reason for the recent forecast of higher pepper production this year. While Kerala contributed 95 per cent of black pepper until 1995, at present Karnataka alone claims for about 25 per cent.