Spices Board eyes organic tag
The Spices Board is gradually stepping up efforts to make the north-east the hub of organic spices, as desired by the commerce ministry.
By Ratna Ganguli, TNN |
KOLKATA : The Spices Board is gradually stepping up efforts to make the north-east the hub of organic spices, as desired by the commerce ministry. It has invited leading organic certification agencies and consultants, like Scal, Ifoam and Indocert, to help farmers adopt organic cultivation of spices and give training to its officials and NGOs, helping farmers on this count.
In the North East, spices are traditionally grown with organic inputs. The board too is encouraging such cultivation. In doing so, it has entrusted Indocert to process organic certification for the region’s spices, apart from providing a range of subsidy for its cultivation. In its urgency to declare the region as a hub for organic spices, it has asked Indocert to further widen activities. At present, cost of certification is being borne by the board. It wants to label all spices produced in the region as organic to enhance export.
A section of Spices Board officials emphasised the need to launch parallel campaigns to project the region as a hub for organic spices in order to capture the global market and also to augment the supply of quality planting materials and beef up manpower.
The commerce ministry has recently identified Arunchal Pradesh, Mizoram and Meghalaya as having maximum potential for organic ginger cultivation, while Assam and Manipur have potential for chillies. Nagaland has potential for both chillies and ginger cultivation. Tripura can produce organic turmeric. This apart, the region is famous for some exotic varieties of spices like Bird’s Eye chilli, Tezpur chilli and Lakadong turmeric.
Of late, organic cultivation of large cardamom has emerged as one of the cash crops in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. Programmes are underway to increase area under Lakadang turmeric from the existing 630-1,000 hectares. Jawai district in Meghalaya is the hub of this location specific variety of the spice.
In the North East, spices are traditionally grown with organic inputs. The board too is encouraging such cultivation. In doing so, it has entrusted Indocert to process organic certification for the region’s spices, apart from providing a range of subsidy for its cultivation. In its urgency to declare the region as a hub for organic spices, it has asked Indocert to further widen activities. At present, cost of certification is being borne by the board. It wants to label all spices produced in the region as organic to enhance export.
A section of Spices Board officials emphasised the need to launch parallel campaigns to project the region as a hub for organic spices in order to capture the global market and also to augment the supply of quality planting materials and beef up manpower.
The commerce ministry has recently identified Arunchal Pradesh, Mizoram and Meghalaya as having maximum potential for organic ginger cultivation, while Assam and Manipur have potential for chillies. Nagaland has potential for both chillies and ginger cultivation. Tripura can produce organic turmeric. This apart, the region is famous for some exotic varieties of spices like Bird’s Eye chilli, Tezpur chilli and Lakadong turmeric.
Of late, organic cultivation of large cardamom has emerged as one of the cash crops in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. Programmes are underway to increase area under Lakadang turmeric from the existing 630-1,000 hectares. Jawai district in Meghalaya is the hub of this location specific variety of the spice.
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