|
|
Honey bee publish details |
| More
Information |
|
|
| Name |
|
|
|
| Address |
|
|
|
| District |
|
|
|
| State |
|
|
|
| Country |
|
|
|
| Category |
|
|
|
| Title |
Innovative farming methods of cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) Cultivation |
|
|
| Abstract |
Cardamom cultivation is an extremely costly affair. Many farmers who own two hectares of land with cardamom plantation usually incur about INR 0.7 - 0.8 million annually towards the cost of procuring fertilisers and pesticides. But surprisingly, Paulose , in Rajakumari, Kerala, incurs less than fifty per cent of the normal cost to manage his 16 acre farm. He doubled the productivity of his plants by adopting innovative low cost cultural practices. Paulose also developed a new improved cardamom variety which is capable of giving better yield under low input system. He was awarded the prize for highest productivity of cardamom in 1995 and thereafter in 2009 by the Spices Board. |
|
|
| Details |
"Paulose continues his family profession of farming. His family owned around six acres of land for cardamom plantation. He isolated few clumps with
long panicle and bold capsules and sowed this new variety in his garden. He experimented with various methods over the last three decades dealing with fertiliser application, plant protection, mulching and consequently evolved several low cost practices. His achievements truly reflect that agriculture is an extremely profitable profession. With three decades of involvement in cardamom plantation, he developed eco-friendly cultural practices with reduced input costs in cardamom cultivation and maximised the yield.
Story of experimenting with new ideas
Having seen many neighbouring farmers around Idukki district use terrace farming, ridges & furrow formation, spray insecticides and pesticide, etc., he started experimenting with cardamom clumps to increase the crop productivity.
Instead of following the high input practices, Paulose slowly progressed towards low cost practices such as mulching, lopping/pruning of trees for shade regulation, identifying and selecting good clumps with vigorous growth for good yield, pest and disease resistance, etc. He standardised these practices after two decades of hard work. His innovations are described below:
Mulching in cardamom
About two decades ago, Paulose noticed quick soil run-off from his field after rainfall. But the areas where soil was covered with leaves and twigs of trees, more moisture was retained and this led to less runoff. In such places the soil pan became loose and rich in humus leading to better growth of the nearby plants with less infestation of pests and diseases. Therefore, he never removed fallen leaves and twigs or small branches from his field and allowed its decomposition. He expanded this mulching technique to his 16 acre field.
Due to in-situ composting process, the humus content was higher in his garden compared to neighbouring plantations. The organic matter content of the soil in his field was 4.05% as compared to 2.6% for the other fields. The best indicator of the soil was - if the soil is held/rolled firmly in hand to form a ball, in normal fields it would form a ball due to the presence of clay in the top layer where as in Paulose’s field it did not form a ball and crumbled as a friable mass due to the presence of high organic matter. Mulching reduced the acidity of soil and increased the pH level and organic carbon content (Report of soil analysis provided by Indian Cardamom Research Institute). This increased the fertility status of the soil and he, therefore, stopped applying much of the chemical fertilisers and restricted it to single application of lime and dolomite and 150g of NPK mixture (usually farmers apply 4 -7 rounds). Mulching led to the following advantages:
Quick plant growth and incidence of thrips and stem borer on the capsules was minimal.
The height of the 17 year old plant was 15 – 20 feet and there were about 100 tillers in each clump.
Cardamom plants are replanted with new suckers within 8-10 years of cultivation. But Paulose’s plantation is being continued successfully for 18 years with compact clumps ( i.e. old suckers decompose faster in his fields than in most of the other fields). Lateral roots are spread evenly in between rows or the inter space.
Unlike in other plantations, Paulose’s farm did not require the process of weeding because the soil was not exposed to sun, thanks to the shade created by cardamom clumps. Ergo, there was no weed growth.
The newly introduced variety- ICRI 5 plants (planted during 2010) have given exceptional performance, giving high yield and good colour capsules. The cultural operations are similar to that of the normal field. Plants exhibited full vigour and high production due to the effect of mulching followed in his field. While the cardamom plants in neighbouring fields wilted, developing such a thick mulch in his field helped in withstanding severe drought (Oct 2012 to Feb 2013) without much loss in yield,
Shade regulation in cardamom plantation
Trees like jackfruit, silver oak, mango, rose wood, etc., are grown in cardamom plantation for providing shade. These trees are normally thinned/pruned at the onset of monsoon. However, Paulose prunes the trees during winter (December/January). Shedding of twigs/branches cause little or no damage to tillers and provide sufficient time to recover during the monsoon season for maximum yield. Since the soil is fertile and heavily mulched, despite pruning of tree branches and the consequent emergence of new shoots, roots are not exposed to extreme temperatures during summer.
Usually farmers allow lateral branches to spread while pruning which suppress the growth of trees vertically. Paulose allows the trees to gain more height by thinning all lateral shoots. The tall trees with overhead shade (trees grow with branches/foliage only at the top due to pruning of side branches) facilitate better aeration
as well as allow indirect sun light to fall on the tillers. So optimum photosynthesis occurs and as a result the overall crop growth is better. Aeration helps in reducing the canopy temperature as well as the multiplication of pests and disease causing organisms.
Minimising the use of chemical fertiliser to reduce soil acidity levels
Paulose uses fertiliser (500 gm) for each clump made up of bone meal and neem cake. In the past, he used to apply cow dung solution to a few selected clumps and observed for one year. However, he had to discard this practice as clumps were vulnerable to diseases. On the other hand, minimising chemical fertiliser helped in reducing soil acidity and increasing the humus content by 4.2% and was able to bring down the pH level to
5.6. Reduction of soil acidity increased the composting process leading to availability of nutrients to plants. Therefore, old rhizomes were decomposing faster rather than rotting, quite unlike in the neighbouring plantations. He had stopped applying fungicides like copper sulphate, bavistin while other farmers regularly applied these on a monthly basis.
Natural control of pests
As per the ICRI recommendations, Paulose used minimal amount of pesticides (one or two rounds) as compared to his neighbouring farmers. The incidence of natural enemy of stem-borer in capsule was 47% in his plot as compared to 12% in ICRI farm and 2% in a farmers plot (where more insecticides are used) as per the survey report of ICRI (August 2012).
New pest resistant variety developed by Mr. Paulose
Paulose’s father had initially planted “Njallani” variety in their land. Paulose selected a few clumps with superior traits and planted them in 1997. The new variety exhibits the following advantages:
Tolerant to thrips with very few sorikkai (thrips affected capsules). The life span of the plants exceeded 15 years. The plant height, width of leaves, number of panicles, productive tillers, number of racemes and capsules per raceme were higher. Compared to the newly introduced variety ICRI – 5, a hybrid cardamom (introduced by Indian Cardamom Institute (ICRI), the new variety developed by Paulose is superior in terms of both yield and pest resistance.
" |
|
|
| Volume No. |
Honey Bee, 29(4) & 30(1) ,19-20, 2019 |
|
|
| Sout |
|
|
|
| Call Number |
|
|
 
|
|
