Horticulture of Kerala
Introduction:
The horticulture sector encompasses a wide range of crops namely fruit crops, vegetables crops, potato and tuber crops, ornamental crops, medicinal and aromatic crops, spices and plantation crops. New introductions like mushroom, bamboo and bee keeping (for improving the crop productivity) further expanded the scope of horticulture. While the first few Five Year Plans assigned priority to achieving self-sufficiency in food grain production, over the years, horticulture has emerged as an indispensable part of agriculture, offering a wide range of choices to the farmers for crop diversification. It also provides ample opportunities for sustaining large numberof agro-industries which generate substantial employment opportunities. Thehorticulture sector contributes around 28% of the GDP from about 13.08% of the area and 37 % of the total exports of agricultural commodities.
During the previous three Plan periods, focused attention was given to horticultural research and development which placed India as the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables, largest producer and consumer of cashew nut, tea spices, third largest producer of coconut, fourth largest producer and consumer of rubber and sixth largest producer of coffee in the world. Today, as a result synergy between focused research, technological and policy initiatives, high efficiency inputs, horticulture in India, has become a sustainable and viable venture for the small and marginal farmers. Besides, the sector has also started attracting entrepreneurs for taking up horticulture as a commercial venture. Therefore, there is a great scope for the horticulture industry to grow and flourish.
Horticulture of Kerala:
Kerala, the state located in the southern tip of India is bordered by Arabian Sea and the extensive network of azure backwaters, rivers and streams, boasts of an agrarian economy. The abundance of water due to the 34 lakes and other small streamlets, innumerable backwaters and water bodies and 49 rain-fed rivers flowing over the terrain of the state and also the adequate annual rainfall of 118 inches received by this state probably facilitates horticulture to a great extent and hence the economy of the state is dominated by horticulture.
Coconut :
Coconut is the most important crop in Kerala. The crop is grown over all the state. Most of the Kerala houses also have Coconut palm grown for immediate household needs. The growing of coconuts is by tradition part of the local rural economy rather than a major element of national agriculture. Three- or four-month-old seedlings are usually uprooted and transferred to a much larger field, where they will be planted at least 8-m/26 ft apart. The first flowers appear after five years, and individual fruits require a whole year to ripen. A versatile fruit with many uses, the coconut’s outer husk of fibres is used to make matting and rope; the white flesh of the fruit can be eaten raw, or dried to produce copra from which coconut oil is extracted, which in turn is used in the manufacture of soaps and margarine. Kerala cuisines also use coconut as the main ingredient.
Rubber
The rubber plant is not a native plant of India. Dutch colonialists who also cultivated rubber in their plantations in Indonesia introduced the rubber plant to Kerala, because of its similar tropical climate. The rubber tree may live for a hundred years or even more. But its economic life period in plantations, on general considerations is, only around 32 years – 7 years of immature phase and 25 years of productive phase. The Rubber plant produces sticky, white latex that is collected and processed to produce natural rubber. Latex is obtained from the bark of the rubber tree by tapping. The latex from within the tree seeps to the surface of the cut and trickles down the cut into a container, tied to the tree by the rubber tapper. Every morning the rubber tapper empties the cup tied to each tree, in the area of the plantation that he works in. Rubber is the most important industrial cash crops among the plantation crops. Off late, even other plantations are being converted for cultivation of rubber. Visitors can find rubber plantations in the high ranges of Kerala.
Cashew nut
Cashews are one of the few fruit crops normally grown from seed. The Portuguese introduced cashew to the west coast of India and east Africa in the 16th century, shortly after its discovery in 1578. It was planted in India initially to reduce erosion, and uses for the nut and pseudo fruit, the cashew apple, were developed much later. The trees were well adapted to the region, and became naturalized. Nut domestication predated the arrival of Europeans to Brazil, although international nut trade did not occur until the 1920s. Native South Americans discovered that roasting nuts in fire would remove the caustic oil, allowing the nut to be cracked and consumed without any ill effects. The roasting practice was either not known or not appreciated outside the native range, and as a result the cashew apple was the first product consumed, with the nut being discarded. Natives also knew of many medicinal uses for the apple juice, bark, and caustic seed oil that were later exploited by Europeans.
India developed more refined methods for removing the caustic shell oil, and this country is given credit for developing the modern nut industry. India led the world in cashew production for many years until just recently, when production in Vietnam surged about 3-fold in a few years. In its native Brazil, cashew nut production ranks in the top 5 of the world, and virtually all cashew apples and juice products come from this country. Preliminary data indicate the cashew nut production surpassed almond in 2003, and thus cashew now claims the title of number one nut crop in the world.
Banana Plantation:
The banana plant grows as a series of suckers from a rhizome. Each stem gradually swags downwards and produces at its tip the male flowers, which are sterile. The female flowers, which produce the edible fruit without fertilization, are found further along the stem. After a stem has produced a crop of fruit, it dies and is replaced by a new stem from a bud further along the rhizome. A banana plant may live for over 60 years. They are picked and exported green and ripened aboard refrigerated ships. The plant is destroyed after cropping.
Banana is one of the common agricultural item in rural India. Throughout the country one can taste the different variety of Banana. The taste also varies from the Northern states to the South and from the East to the West. A special variety of Banana is cultivated in the Kerala soil, which is a part of the daily menu of the people of the state. This variety of banana is a part of the OnamSadya during the Onam festival in the month of September.
The most essential or the staple crop is the rice or paddy. About 600 varieties of rice are grown in the sprawling paddy fields of Kerala. In fact the Kuttinad region of the district of Kerala is known as the ‘rice bowl of the state’ and enjoys a significant status in the production of rice. Next to rice is another very important crop which is known as Tapioca and is cultivated mainly in the drier regions. Tapoica is a major food of the Keralites.
Besides production of the main crop, Kerala is also a major producer of spices that form the cash crops of the state. Kerala’s spice trade is about 3000 years old and it is well known how the fresh aroma of the superb quality Kerala spices lured foreigners into this country in the medieval ages. Kerala produces 96% of the country’s national output of pepper. The important spices are cardamom, cinnamon, clove, turmeric,nutmeg and vanilla. Cardamom is exported and brings great revenues to the country.
Other cash crops that constitute the agricultural sector include Tea, coffee, cashew, coconut, areca nut, ginger and coconut. In fact coconut provides the principal source of income in Kerala- from coir industry to coconut shell artefacts; coconuts bring most of the economic gains to Kerala. Approximately, Kerala provides about 70% of Indian output of coconuts.
Last but not the least, the home gardens of Kerala also adds to the state’s Agrarian economy with a large number of vegetables, spices, coconuts, fruits grown locally.