Spices play an important role in the Indian economy and these can immensely help in increasing farmers’ income in the country. Moreover, focus on genetic diversity and a shift from being a supplier of raw material to a manufacturer of high-value spices-based products is the need of the hour. These views were expressed by the scientists during the inaugural session of the 29th Annual Workshop of ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Spices that began today at the Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry (UHF), Nauni.
The workshop is being organized by the UHF Department of Vegetable Science. Over 110 scientists from 38 coordinating centres located in 23 states of the country are taking part in the workshop to review the progress of research work done during the past one year and finalize new programmes on spices. The four-day event will recommend location specific varieties and technologies for sustainable spices production and ensuring that the country’s spices can compete in the international market.
Dr Ashwani Sharma, Head Department of Vegetable Science welcomed the delegates and thanked the ICAR for giving the university an opportunity to host the event. Speaking at the inaugural session, Dr K. Nirmal Babu, Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Spices Research, Kozhikode and Project Coordinator, AICRP on Spices highlighted the major achievements made by the centres during the past one year.
“Spices are low volume high-value products and can be cultivated in any cropping system. Indian spices are considered the best in the world and around 50 per cent world spice trade takes place in India. In future, we want to retain and take a major part of the spices trade, which is expected to reach US $ 30-40 billion by 2050. In addition, we want to capture the market of high-value phytochemicals, of which spices are a major source, as future trade is going to be for pharma-nutraceutical companies,” said Dr Babu.
He added that much of the spices in India carry pesticides and through the involvement of farmers, research organizations and the industry, this issue is being addressed so that the country can continue to supply food safe spices to the world.
In his address Dr HC Sharma, UHF Vice-Chancellor said that Himachal Pradesh has a huge scope for cultivation of various high-quality spices. He called for the need to strengthening the AICRP in order to improve the productivity and quality of spices and suggested the use of GI tags to increase the market value of the farmers produce. Dr Sharma also urged the scientists to utilize molecular tools for crop improvement and enhancing secondary metabolite content. Dr Gopal Lal, Director, ICAR-NRC on Seed Spices suggested the development of value chain models and integrated farming models.
The Pepper Research Station (Kerala Agriculture University), Kerala was awarded the Best AICRPS Centre Award for the year 2017-18. Thirteen publications of various centres were released during the session including a booklet on ‘Diagnosis and Management of Diseases of Spice crops in Himachal Pradesh’ by the UHF’s Department of Vegetable Science.
The ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Project on Spices is coordinating research in 14 spice crops viz., black pepper, small cardamom, large cardamom, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, coriander, cumin, fennel, fenugreek, nigella and ajwain. At present, AICPRS has 38 centers, which include 19 regular, 11 coopting and 8 voluntary centres spread over 23 states representing 14 major agro-climatic regions of the country.