The Hindu Business Line : AP coastal farmers urged to take up vanilla cultivation

VANILLA cultivation can be taken up profitably by farmers in the coastal districts as an inter crop along with coconut, oil palm and mango, Mr S. Ramamohan, the Assistant Director, Horticulture, has said.

He was speaking at a press meet here on Wednesday held by the Hyderabad-based organisation, Indo Bionomics, to promote awareness about the crop. (On March 28, a seminar is being held in Hyderabad on the subject.)

Mr Ramamohan said that natural vanilla was a much-sought after crop in the international market and the crop in Madagaskar, supplying almost 80 per cent of the vanilla in the market, had suffered badly of late due to a cyclone.

"Therefore, there is a great demand for natural vanilla and, even if the situation improves in Madagaskar, it would still be in demand, as at present only four to five per cent of vanilla requirement is met through natural sources," he said.

Therefore, he said, the coastal farmers in AP should grab the opportunity and cultivate vanilla organically as their colleagues were doing in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

On the cost of cultivation, he said, open cultivation of vanilla would need Rs 1 lakh or so over a period of three years and shade cultivation Rs 3 lakhs. "Though it may be a bit high for a small farmer, the returns are commensurate and the banks are also ready to finance it," he said.

Mr P. Veera Reddy, a director of Indo Bionomics, said the Hyderabad seminar would be the first major attempt to promote vanilla cultivation in the State and later attempts would be made to form a trust of farmers as in Karnataka.

On the question of marketing, he said, there would not be a problem as six or seven established companies were in the field buying up the produce from farmers.

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