Not AvailableSpices have played a very important role in shaping the history of human culture and
civilization. Spices, condiments and aromatics were the first products to be traded by the
ancient people. Spices are important high value commodities traded internationally for
many centuries. Spices are low volume, high value, export oriented crops. The Andaman
and Nicobar Islands which is known as hot spot of biodiversity, is bestowed with congenial
climatic conditions for cultivation of different kinds of spice crops. Most spices are well
adapted to grow under shaded conditions and hence integration of spices in the existing
coconut and arecanut plantations is one of the viable option for increasing the area and
production of spices in the Island. The Andaman and Nicobar islands have emerged as a
popular tourist destination and there is a high demand for high quality spices. The consumer
preference is more towards organic spices and hence there is a lot of scope for increasing
the area under spices and branding the spice products as organic since there is a minimal or
no usage of chemical fertilizers and plant protection chemicals in the Island for production
of spices.
The major constraints faced by the farmers for spices cultivation were the non availability
of quality planting material of spice crops and lack of awareness of recent developments in
spices production technologies. ICAR-CIARI with the aid of the centrally sponsored scheme
funded by Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development Board (DASD) is involved
in quality planting material production of spice crops and their distribution to farmers in
different parts of the Island. Various training programmes, workshops and seminars are
regularly conducted at village, district and state level to increase the awareness among the
farmers about the improved technological developments in spices production. ICAR-CIARI
is also constantly involved in conducting front line demonstration programmes of black
pepper, ginger and turmeric to farmers in different parts of the Island. Many farmers in the
Andaman group of Islands are successful in organic cultivation of ginger and turmeric and
their success stories have been documented.Not Availabl
