• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

Heavy rains hit Kerala tea output

G.K. Nair

KOCHI, July 11

THE incessant south-west monsoon rains lashing Kerala in recent weeks have adversely affected the tea plantations pushing the production down.

Other major crops such as pepper and cardamom have not been seriously affected by its fury so far, except in Idukki where cloudbursts washed away some crops, including pepper. However, the extent of damage had not been been assessed yet, a revenue offici al in Idukki.

The worst-affected was tea and the loss due to the heavy downpour was estimated to be close to Rs 1 crore, Mr N. Dharmaraj, the Vice-Chairman of Association of Planters of Kerala (APK), and the Vice-President (Plantations) of Harissons Malayalam Plantati ons, told Business Line.

The rains had been heavy in high ranges of Idukki district, which had around 11,000 hectares under tea in the corporate sector and about 6,000 hectare under small holdings. While in Wayanad 4,400 hectares were under tea and in that district the rains wer e not as severe as it was in Idukki, he said.

``Incessant heavy rains, high wind and low temperature will drastically bring down the tea production in the region during July. The Kerala production will, as a result, fall to around 2.5 million kgs in July as against 4 mkg in July, 2000,'' he said. Be sides, if the rains continued at the present rate in the coming weeks, then the production in August would also be severely affected, he said.

A senior scientist with the Spices Board here said the rains so far had been good for cardamom. However, if it continued incessantly for few more days then the plants would be adversely affected. He said in that case the humid conditions would intensify and prolong leading to capsule and panicle shedding, due to fungal attacks. The chances for phytophthora were more in such conditions, he pointed out. For pepper also the rains were favourable so far, and ``no alarming situation has emerged so far'', he said.

There weren't heavy winds in the Vandanmedu area, one of the major cardamom growing areas in Kerala's spices district, Idukki, according to Mr Ramachandran, Head of the Cardamom Marketing Corporation Ltd (CMC) Vandanmedu. ``The present rains are favourab le for cardamom and hence the production this year could be higher than that of last year,'' he said.

However, lack of rains during December and January last would delay the next crop till the third week of August, he said.

Pepper is extensively grown in the Wayanad district, where the spell so far has been favourable, according to a major pepper grower there. In Idukki also, the rains had not adversely affected the crop, a major grower of Udumbanchola taluk said.