Spice Board Revives Black Cardamom of Sikkim

Gangtok, July 22: A total of 45 farmers from Tingzey ward of Upper Mangshilla, North Sikkim who have undertaken the cardamom farming under the scheme “Certified Nursery” the scheme which has been funded by the Spices Board of India. The farmers of this village are doing well through this scheme which has become one of the main sources of income for them presently. The farmers were taught with the new farming technology method under this scheme for the cultivation of sucker “Large Cardamom” by the Spices Board along with the Rain Water Harvesting for irrigation of the cardamom during dry spell too. The scheme which was provided to the farmers five years ago is now giving production and the farmers are able to sell the cardamom in the market. Considering the development of the said program a joint inspection was conducted by the Spices Board, headed by the Senior Field Officer, Mr. PT Lepcha and Mr. R J Mondal, Farm Manager including Mr. Ringzing Bhutia, Inspector from Horticulture Department. The inspecting team found the progress of the cardamom in the area as per the expectation of the Department. The farmers have to produce at least 2000 saplings for mitigating the target of single unit ,

Mr. Laksingh Limboo one of the farmer informed that he was able to produce five quintal of cardamom last year and was able to sale more than four thousand saplings which gives annual income of more than

4 lakhs. This year his expectation is more than what he got last year. Mr. Limboo who has started the farming since five years ago started producing cardamom after two years of plantation and expressing his gratitude towards the Spices Board for providing such a fruitful scheme in the village by which many farmers can bear their household expenses.

 Mr. R J Mondal, Farm Manager, Spices Board informed that the department has provided the scheme in most of the villages in North District and also added that the saplings have been demanded by the

Horticulture Department too for distribution to the farmers from other districts too. Mr. Mondal adding more informed that the Spices Board is providing the training on new method of farming as well.

Spice Board of India provide the subsidy grant of Rs. 11,500/- to each farmer.

ICAR Workshop on Big Cardamom

Gangtok,October08: A day long DBT Interactive Workshop on “Management of pest and diseases of Large cardamom in North-East Region using potential bio-pesticides and Biotechnological approaches” was organized by ICAR, Sikkim Centre, Tadong, Gangtok on 5th October.
The workshop aimed to address the problems of large cardamom cultivation in the region was inaugurated by Prof. S. N. Puri, Vice Chancellor, Central Agricultural University (CAU) Imphal, Manipur. Dr. Seema Wahab, Advisor, DBT, New Delhi, Dr. Opendra Koul, Director, IBRC, Jalandhar, Punjab and Shri. M L Arrawatia, Secretary, DST, Govt. of Sikkim, attended along with the scientists of ICAR, Indian Cardamom Research Institute and DBT, New Delhi and State officials.
Dr. H. Rahman, Joint Director, ICAR, welcomed the dignitaries and delegates and expressed his gratitude for giving ICAR an opportunity to conduct Workshop on the most pertinent issues. He expressed his concerned over the recession of production in Large Cardamom that pushed India to second position from leading producer. The decline in production may be attributed to the occurrence of diseases, poor management, poor pollination and climate change, he added. He said that the farming practices, inaccessibility of field and negligence further aggravate the decline syndrome.
Dr. Seema Wahab in her address put emphasis on the application of biotechnology in production of elite and disease-free planting materials. She told that DBT is always ready to finance need based research project that could bring viable technology for famers. She felt the need of a network project on Large Cardamom covering important aspects of production technology.
Dr. Opender Koul, Director, Insect Biopesticides Research Centre, Jalandhar, expressed spoke about the efficacy of bio-pesticides in managing pests and viral and fungal diseases. Bio-pesticides will only be effective, if they are used in right perspective, he added. He further emphasized the need of exploitation of bio-products, as these products are themselves library of chemicals.
Dr. M. L. Arrawatia, Secretary, DST, Govt. of Sikkim, emphasized the need of participatory approach in addressing the problems of large cardamom including value addition as it is one of the major sources of livelihood of farming community of Sikkim. He told that the Govt. of Sikkim was highly concerned about the decrease in the production and area of large cardamom, although state is taking up many measures.
Prof. Puri, Vice Chancellor, Central Agricultural University, Imphal, expressed his dissent over the reduction in India’s share (32%) in world large cardamom production.

Sikkim Must Set-Up Processing units for large cardamom

GANGTOK, August 30: The Export-Import (EXIM) Bank in its study on export potential and prospects has identified large cardamom, orchids (cymbidium variety), Temi tea, ginger, mandarin, medicinal plants, honey and handicrafts as products of Sikkim having good potential for exports.
The agro-climatic diversity enables Sikkim to produce a variety of horticulture and floriculture products for which Sikkim has a comparative advantage, from an export perspective, the EXIM bank said in its study released by Chief Minister Pawan Chamling “Sikkim is by far the largest producer of large cardamoms, not just in India but globally. The State produced 3883 metric tonnes of large cardamom, of the overall Indian production of 4303 metric tones in 2006-07, thereby accounting for 89.1 percent of the country’s production”, says the study.
The study pointed out that supply chain of large cardamom in Sikkim in quite fragmented and reaches the retail level only after passing through a number of middlemen. Most of the farmers in Sikkim still use the traditional curing system for drying large cardamom.
The EXIM Bank has recommended that State Government that new plantations should replace the older ones as most cardamom plantations in Sikkim are at least three decades old resulting in declining species.
“The decline in yield has been further accentuated by disease and pest infection, mainly two viral diseases, Chirkey and Foorkey. Management of these pests and diseases is of upmost importance to increase productivity”.
The study also highlighted the need to move up the value chain through a two step process for drying and extraction of essential oils and oleoresins while a processing cum extraction plant for the purpose of deriving such products from large cardamom could greatly enhance the value of exports.
“There appears to be a very good international market for large cardamom oleoresins, which calls for setting up a processing unit in Sikkim-hitherto absent”, said the EXIM Bank pointing out that exports of cardamom oleoresins from India more than trebled during the period 2005 to 2008 – from US$ 17 mn to US$ 54 mn. The major markets for cardamom oleoresins are Russia, Denmark, Germany, France and Egypt.
“An additional benefit of large cardamom oleoresin production is that after removal of oleoresins from the dry cardamom spices, the residue can be used as an ingredient for animal feed. Thus, moving up the value chain through setting up the processing units for extraction of oil and oleoresins would facilitate quantum jump in the value of exports from Sikkim”, concluded the EXIM Bank in its executive summary on export potential of large cardamom.

Climate Warming and Large Cardamom Farming in the Sikkim Himalaya

The average air temperature in the last forty years has risen twice as fast in the Himalayan Region than the average warming in the mid latitudinal northern hemisphere. This means the rate of warming is more pronounced in the high altitude regions than the lower ones. It also means the Himalayas are more sensitive towards climate warming and significantly impacted by climate change.

Besides the first order impacts of climate change like glacial retreat, glacial lake outburst floods, rise in the sea levels, drying up of rivers and streams etc; climate warming has significantly impacted the health of both flora and fauna in recent times. Such impacts have perhaps been more severe and far reaching in and around the hills and mountain areas. Agriculture is believed to be one of the direct targets of climate warming. Various scientific studies indicate both positive and negative impacts on the health and productivity of agricultural crops depending on the type of crops, season, geographical region and climatic conditions therein.

Sikkim Himalaya: Geography and Environment

A small and beautiful mountain region, Sikkim situated in the Eastern Indian Himalayas spreads below the world´s third highest mountain Kangchendzonga (8598m). The region is separated by the Singalila range from Nepal in the west, Chola range from Tibet in the northeast and Bhutan in the southeast. Rangit and Rangpo rivers form the borders with the Darjeeling district of West Bengal in the south. Sikkim Himalaya measures a total geographical area of 7,096 sq km with 349.3 km of international border- China border: 220 km, Bhutan border: 32.8 km, Nepal border: 96.5 km. It has a national border of 30.3 km with West Bengal. This also means 92 percent of Sikkim´s border is with neighbouring countries. About 100 kms from the border town Rangpo in South Sikkim lies the Bangladesh.

The region being a part of inner ranges of the Himalayas has no open valley and plains but varied geographical elevations ranging from 300 to 8598 meter above mean sea level consisting of lower hill, middle and higher hills, alpine zones and snow bound land, the highest elevation 8598 meter being the top of the Mt. Kangchendzonga itself. On the north-western side of the Sikkim Himalaya lies the massive 31 Km long Zemu glacier. Sikkim´s botanical and zoological affluence is truly impressive.

Climate Change in the Sikkim Himalaya

Sikkim Himalaya as an integral part of the Himalayan region has witnessed notable variation in its temperature and rainfall pattern over the years. According to Meteorological sources, maximum temperature in Gangtok has been rising by 0.2o C per decade and minimum temperature has been falling by 0.3o C per decade. The annual rainfall has been increasing by 49.6mm per decade. The physical effects of such meteorological deviations include glacier retreat, GLOFs, record breaking forest fire incidents, failure of agricultural crops and forced changes in the timing of crops etc. Further, animals, birds and insects are changing their habits and habitats while the tree line is gradually shifting upward.

Sikkimese Agriculture

Sikkim is primarily a rural and agricultural economy where over 60 per cent of its population is directly engaged in agriculture. Principal food crops cultured in the region include maize, paddy, barley, millet, wheat, buck wheat, beans etc. Important cash crops are large cardamom, ginger, potato, soybean, fruit crops and vegetables etc. Large cardamom is raised on commercial basis and is exported both within and outside the country. Over 16,949 farmers cultivate large cardamom in the Sikkim Himalaya of which 15,209 are small and marginal farmers, while around 30 percent are totally dependent on this crop for their survival. Large cardamom plantation covers about 26 thousand hectares of land under cultivation. With about 54 percent of the global market for large cardamom, India is the largest producer in the world, followed by Nepal with 33 per cent of the market and Bhutan with 13 per cent. Of the Indian output, almost 88 per cent come from Sikkim. It is, therefore, a foreign exchange earner crop of Sikkim.
Deteriorating Health of Large Cardamom Orchards

Large cardamom farming in Sikkim has,however, been suffering from decline in production and gradual drying and subsequent death of the plant in the last 1 to 1.5 decades. There has been a steady decline in the yield of large cardamom over the years. One of the important factors of declining yield of the crop is ascribed to old age of cardamom bushes. A section of the policy makers and farmers also believe that monoculture of cardamom plants in the same fields for generations, is perhaps, an added cause of declining productivity of the cardamom. However, a further more important and serious factor in this regard has been the destruction of cardamom orchards by viral diseases in recent years. There are increasing warnings from the scientists, policy makers and people on field that change in temperature and rainfall pattern in the region over last many years could be the potential factors of the disease spreading viruses and subsequent destruction and declining productivity of large cardamom plantations across Sikkim.

Measures Taken

Both adaptive and mitigative measures have been undertaken by the farmers to sustain their livelihood. These measures have been taken both at the household/community initiative as well as with the support of the government. In the first case, the farmers are resorting to alternative livelihood opportunities like experimenting other cash crops like ginger, orange, horticulture at commercial level. With regard to the mitigative measures, the farmers are spraying pesticides, cleaning the fields, keeping the land fallow for some years and replanting the fields with fresh cardamom saplings. The government, especially Spices Board of India, has been helping the farmers since last many years to salvage their livelihood. The results of the mitigative measures have not been very fruitful, nonetheless.

Conclusion

A fundamental question to be seriously taken under such a situation is: if Sikkim does away with its large cardamom farming in the near future what would be the fate of a large section of agrarian population dependant on cardamom farming. It would not only affect the state's agricultural economy but also the Indian spice trade in a major way. Since, many people in the rural areas has been dependent on cardamom as the main cash crop providing them with a significant part of their livelihood, the impact of steadily falling health of cardamom orchards and declining yield is likely to be disastrous. Such a scenario calls for a need to work out and evolve a comprehensive strategy to revitalise the health of cardamom plants and sustain the yields. The plants affected by the viral diseases cannot be cured but the losses may be minimised by adopting appropriate management practices.

(Vimal Khawas )

5 DETAINED BY SIKKIM FORESTS

DETAINED FOR ILLEGAL CULTIVATION OF CARDAMOM ON FOREST LAND

GANGTOK, August 02: Forest Department officials today arrested five persons from Bhushuk, East Sikkim for engaging in illegal cultivation of black cardamom in reserved forest areas.
Acting on a tip off, following, the Forest Departmental officials today carried out a raid and arrested the five persons without warrant under Section 70 of the Forest Act.
Those arrested include Raju Chettri, Tshering Sherpa, Wangchuk Sherpa, Gyan Bahadur Tamang and Dil Bahadur Tamang, all residents of Bhushuk area under Assam Lingey constituency.
The raid was carried out at the initiative of ACF, Nambi Tshering Bhutia, Range Officer (Ranipool) BL Bhattarai accompanied by other forest personals.
The Chief Conservator of Forest, CS Rao informed to media that the persons have been arrested under Section 20 of the Sikkim Forest Water Courses and Road Reserved Preservation and Protection Act (against illegal clearing of forest area for non-forestry purpose). The said persons had reportedly cleared up the forestland up to 5 hectares and using the land for black cardamom culvitation.
The main culprit, Raju Chettri had hired the other four persons to clear up the forest area and was engaged in massive cardamom cultivation since last three days. The alleged persons were produced before the court of Judicial Magistrate today and sentenced to 15 days judicial remand in Rongyek Jail, Mr. Rao.
If found guilty, the accused persons are likely to be sentenced with 7 years of imprisonment and fined Rs 20,000. The entire Bhushuk range has been identified as reserved forest area and any kind of grazing or felling of trees is strictly prohibited here.