SALAKPUR, Nepal, Sept. 29 (IPS) – A two-and-a-half hour drive north from Kakarbhitta, Nepal’s easternmost border crossing with its giant neighbor India, is the mountainous village of Salakpur where Kaushila Moktan, a famous grower of big cardamom, lives.
“I manage a dwelling for the guests who visit our village, I also grow green vegetables and I keep bees,” Kattan said. However, our biggest source of family income is Ecchi (big cardamom, in Nepali). “
Moqtan said the factory helped keep her family of three — including her husband and 31-year-old son — flounder. “This year we produced about 24 man (960 kg) of cardamom,” she added in an interview on her farm. “I sold 5man for 160,000 rupees (equivalent to US$1,229).” The locals have their own cardamom measure. Forty kilograms equals one. man. a man It currently sells for around 30,000 rupees.
Moktan has stockpiled a large part of its crop in the hope of getting a better price in the coming days. I have 1 selling experience man for 98,000 rupees about six years ago. This time, the price has been reduced to around 30,000 rupees.”
She added that beekeeping improved the cardamom yield. “This year, we brought in 30 kg of honey and 24 man of cardamom, but last year the cardamom harvest was about 9 man The honey yield was 3 kilos. I have seen that good pollination leads to better yields of both cardamom and honey.
Cardamom is used as a cooking spice, and it has a smoky flavor similar to that of camphor. It is also an ingredient in traditional medicine in countries such as India and China.
Farmers can’t get enough
Moqtan’s neighbors tell similarly positive stories about the crop. “I have a grocery store, a home stay, and beekeeping, but my good source of income is cardamom,” said Laxmi Tamang. She added that her farm produces about 5 man of the crop and that it recently sold this year’s crop for Rs.160,000.
Nearby, Papitra Khataraj said she produces about three man every year. “We sell milk to dairy, but if we had more land, we would grow more big cardamom.”
The three women are among 300 families in Salakpur, Rong Rural 6 municipality in Ilam district, which depend on the crop. Ward chief Satyam Rai said, “Every household in our area has a large cardamom cultivation.”
On the bank of the Michi River, which runs between India and Nepal, the large production of cardamom Salakpur appeared due to cross-border migration. “This village had no tendency towards the spread of cardamom because we did not have much water and the soil would not grow the usual variety,” Kattan said. “But, relatives from India suggested that we try their variety, which is grown in areas with water scarcity.”
The formula has been proven to work for about 15 years. Talk of the new crop soon spread to other areas of Nepal, bringing in hordes of people looking to buy seedlings. “We will sell it for 5 rupees per seedling,” Kattan said, “people even in Dolakha district (500 km west of Ilam) have come here to buy this plant.” “Even today, people occasionally come to buy seedlings.”
The government of Nepal has noticed the great cardamom boom. Working with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), it has selected the crop, and four others, as strong candidates to invest in a new project, the Hand in Hand (HiH) initiative.
Investment in production and processing
“In terms of production, we will aim to create high-quality, disease-free planting materials, expand the production area, and provide capacity building, including post-harvest marketing,” said Ken Shimizu, FAO Representative in Nepal and Bhutan. in an interview. “For processing, there is a shortage of drying and storage facilities, which will be processed,” he added in his office in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
Other crops identified under HiH in Nepal are mountain potatoes, ginger, and timor (Szechuan pepper). All were evaluated using the government’s Climate-Smart Agricultural Investment Scheme, which the Food and Agriculture Organization says outlines climate-smart farming practices and aims to increase yields and improve climate resilience, sustainability and efficiency. Target crops under HiH yield an average return on investment of 20-25 percent.
Shimizu said the agency plans to reach 100,000 large cardamom products through HiH. “What we want to see is the effect. First, more income from cardamom, which will help boost livelihoods and increase farmers’ income.”
HiH is an evidence-based, state-owned and led initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization to accelerate agricultural transformation, which also aims to end poverty, end hunger and malnutrition, and reduce inequality. The initiative supports 52 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East as of May 2022.
The locals in Salakpur call the big cardamom they grow my brother alishiWhich refers to the cardamom that grows on the slopes. The official Nepalese government office gave it another name – Germal. According to Onoba Subedi, Horticultural Development Officer and Information Officer at the Cardamom Development Center, Germal It is grown at an altitude of 600 m to 1200 m in areas with water scarcity. They are harvested in the last three weeks of August.
Cardamom is grown in 46 districts of Nepal, the vast majority of which are in the eastern hills. Subedi said that the production of large cardamom, which was harvested on an area of 17,015 hectares, amounted to 11,621 tons in 2021. She added that less than five percent of the cardamom is consumed in the country and the rest is exported mainly to India. Nepal is one of the world’s largest exporters of cardamom, accounting for 68 percent of global production. According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization, it earns about $37 million from its cardamom exports.
Farmers see warning signs
Despite its booming success in recent years, major cardamom growers in Salakpur are not optimistic that this trend will continue. Kattan said that the yellowing of the leaves sounded an alarm for farmers two years ago. Previously, the locals grew oranges and ginger, but these crops also declined in the end.
“Once upon a time there was a huge cultivation of ginger. We will make about 100,000 rupees a year,” she said. “This ended about 10 years ago, and orange cultivation has been non-existent for the past five years.” Qattan and her neighbors had earned a healthy living and a good reputation in growing both crops, Today’s orange trees wither, as did the ginger plants before them.
“Now we are unable to grow and monetize ginger and oranges for reasons we don’t know,” Tamang said. “We ask ourselves: How long will cardamom cultivation last?”
Women have heard that climate change may have contributed to the problems, and there are other theories. “Some said that the orange trees died because we planted cardamom seedlings around them,” Kattan said. But in some cases the trees died even in the absence of cardamom.”
However, she is confident that support to deal with any growing issues will be provided by the local government, the Cardamom Development Center and international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization. “We cannot solve any technical problems on our own,” Moktan said. “We need support from outside.”
© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
from San Jose News Bulletin https://sjnewsbulletin.com/the-government-of-nepal-and-the-united-nations-agency-are-looking-for-investors-for-the-latest-cash-crops-to-flourish-in-eastern-countries-global-issues/
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