These plantation crops are cultivated in about 9.5 lakh hectares of land in south India. Bulk of coffee production is exported, with shipments accounting for 75 per cent of production. The case of pepper is almost similar. On the other hand, the entire rubber production is consumed at home either for domestic consumption or exported for use in the tyre and non-tyre sector.

Out of the total value of tea, coffee, rubber and cardamom in south India at about Rs 6,790 crore, Kerala accounts for nearly Rs3,700 crore (54 per cent) as compared to Rs 2,000 crore in Karnataka (30 per cent) and Rs 1,100 crore in Tamil Nadu (16 per cent).

In addition to the foreign exchange earnings from export of these commodities, a substantial revenue accrues to the exchequers of the central and the state governments from plantation crops by way of cess, central income tax, agricultural income tax, and sales tax. Taking a look at these commodities individually, the available data shows that there has been a considerable increase in the production of coffee in south India over the years.

The trend during the last two years shows that the coffee production figures in the southern part of the country went up to 2,27,400 tonne (as against an all-India production of 2,30,000 tonne) from 2,08,500 tonne during 1997-98 (when the country's coffee production stood at 2,10,000 tonne.)

Even on the export front, significant strides have been made by coffee. The shipments of this commodity have substantially increased from 55,813 tonneto 2,10,959 tonne during the past 20 years. While 53 per cent of the production was exported in the 70's, it has now gone up to an average figure of 70 per cent. The entire foreign exchange earnings of Rs 1,747 crore from export of coffee during 1998-99 was contributed from the south. The production targets contemplated by the government by 2001-02, for coffee stands at 3,00,000 tonne.

However, the growth in domestic consumption of coffee has been sluggish. It has went up from 53,500 tonne in 1977-78 to about 60,000 tonne in 1998-99, an increase of 12 per cent for 20 years. On the tea front, there has been a sustained increase in production of tea over the years. With the area available for expansion being limited, bulk of the production increase has come from yield improvement.

During 1998-99, the production of south Indian tea stood at 2,00,200 tonne as against the country's production of 8,69,250 tonne. As against the Indian export value of tea during 1998-99, which stood at Rs 2,156, export of southIndian tea accounted for an exports earnings of Rs 1,086 crore.

There has, however, been a significant shift towards manufacture of CTC teas. While in 1975-77 the CTC/Orthodox ratio was 38:62, it has now changed to 80:20. The government has visualised a national production target of 1,000 million kgs of tea by the end of the Ninth Plan of which the contribution from south India is contemplated at 235 million kgs.

Among plantation crops, rubber has recorded the fastest growth in area as also in production. The area under rubber cultivation in the country increased from 2,45,200 hectare in 1977-78 to nearly 5,33,246 hectare in 1996-97 to 5,44,550 hectare in 1998-99.

During the last 20 years, rubber production went up from 1,46,987 tonne in 1997-78 to 5,83,830 tonne in 1997-98 and 6,05,045 during 1998-99. The yield per hectare in case of rubber is the highest in India. It has gone up by 102 per cent over the last 20 years and stood at 1,563 kgs per hectare during 1998-99.

Out of the total production of6,05,045 tonne of rubber during 1998-99, around 5,91,550 was consumed within India. The production target for rubber as fixed by the government for the Ninth Five Year Plan, by 2001-02 stands at 7,30,000 tonne. Cardamom is essentially a small grower crop as bulk of the 30,000 holdings are small. This again is exclusively grown in south India. A survey conducted sometime back by the Spices Board is indicative of a decline in the area under cardamom. The present area is estimated at 84,000 hectare.

The production of cardamom has been widely fluctuating. Output has gone down from 7,000 tonne during 1997-98, to 3,500 tonne during 1998-99. In India, Kerala accounts for 69 per cent of cardamom production followed by Karnataka 21 per cent and Tamil Nadu 10 per cent. A major share of the production is at present domestically consumed. Out of the 3,500 tonne of cardamom production during 1998-99, almost 3,150 tonne was consumed domestically.

Even during 1997-98, when the production stood at 7,000 tonne, around6,750 tonne was consumed within the country. Pepper is cultivated as a backyard crop and also as an inter-crop in coffee plantations and in tea plantations at certain elevations in south India.

The production of pepper during 1998-99 went up to 75,000 tonne as compared to 65,000 tonne during 1997-98. Shipments also went up 35,100 tonne at an export value of Rs 635 crore during 1998-99 compared to 34,250 tonne at value of Rs 480 crore during 1997-98.