The Hindu Business Line : Rains, diseases hit pepper output

Kochi, Oct. 11 Pepper production in the country in 2009 is likely to remain stagnant at the previous year’s estimated output of 50,000-55,000 tonnes or marginally lower.

This is due to the heavy rains in late September and early October in Idukki, Pathanamthitta and Wayanad districts of Kerala and some parts of Madikeri in Karnataka.

“Excessive rains are not good,” Dr Jacob Thomas, a senior agriculture scientist and planter, told Business Line. Normally, the weather used to be dry from mid-September during which period the berries mature.

According to him, because of the untimely incessant rains there is a possible 15 per cent drop in the pepper output in Karnataka. Cultivation in Wayanad, which used to be one of the main growing areas in Kerala, has gone down by over 50 per cent and if the present trend continued this crop might disappear from the district, Mr Sainulabdeen, who is a major pepper grower of Wayanad, said.

According to him, quick wilt, which has destroyed most of the vines in the plantations in several parts of the State, and other diseases have been responsible for the sharp fall in the output. Unless a permanent remedy is found, there is no point in planting new vines, he said, adding disease-resistant high-yield planting materials are not available in the State.

“I have planted three truck loads of planting materials numbering around 8,000 cuttings of Panniyur. But its performance is far below the publicised levels”, he said. The entire Kalpetta-Sultan Bathery belt in the district, he said, was growing pepper with an output of around 15,000 tonnes. Today, plantations in this belt have disappeared and consequently output has dropped to around 7,000 tonnes from over 15,000 tonnes a decade ago.

In Idukki, there has been a drop in area, estimated around 20,000 hectares during the past five years. The district which used to produce over 20,000 tonnes would have an output of 12,000 tonnes now.

The inability to raise the per-hectare yield, despite decades of research and spending crores of rupees, is a bane on the pepper cultivation in India, trade sources said.

Imports during April-August 2009 haves shown a substantial increase to 8,816.13 tonnes from 6,466.72 tonnes in the corresponding period last year. Exports during the period this year were 7,357 tonnes, trade sources said.

Meanwhile, official sources admitted, “the productivity continues to be low because of the continued use of old cultivation methods and shortage of well rooted cuttings of high yielding varieties, advent of pests and diseases like slow-wilt, wilt, little leaf and quick wilt.

Of these, quick wilt is the most harmful disease, which spreads rapidly destroying a large number of vines, estimated at about 20 per cent of the total crop almost every year in the country”.

Yield varies widely in different areas and depends on several factors such as soil fertility, availability of irrigation facilities, type and quality of manure, climate, type of variety, age of vine, etc., they said.

The production, according to trade estimates for 2009, is 50,000-55,000 tonnes. Production in Kerala may be between 25,000 and 30,000 tonnes, in Karnataka around 20,000-22,000 tonnes and in Tamil Nadu around 3,000 tonnes. The monthly domestic consumption is estimated between 3,500 and 4,000 tonnes.

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