Arecanut gaining foothold in North-Eastern States

While Karnataka continues to top the arecanut chart with both the acreage and output showing an increase, the North-Eastern States are emerging as a hub for this plantation crop.

According to the data available with the Kozhikode-based Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development (DASD), the crop is being cultivated on 4.50 lakh hectares (lh) in the country and production estimated at around 7.46 lakh tonnes (lt) .

N-E, the new entrant

Assam has emerged as the third largest producer of arecanut after the southern states of Karnataka and Kerala.

Compared to the growers down south, growers in Assam seem to have taken interest in expanding the acreage under arecanut as more than 7,800 hectares were added since 2011-12. The area under arecanut went up from 68,700 hectares in 2011-12 to 74,000 hectares in 2014-15.

However, the productivity from the plants there was not encouraging as the production went up from 60,000 tonnes in 2011-12 to 74,000 tonnes in 2014-15.

Though the area under arecanut cultivation doubled in Mizoram from 5,010 hectares in 2011-12 to 10,740 hectares in 2014-15, there was a decline in the production from 12,390 tonnes to 7270 tonnes.

Comparatively, Meghalaya witnessed growth in area and production during the period.

The area under the crop went up from 15,450 hectares to 17,110 hectares, and the production from 21,750 tonnes to 24,680 tonnes during the period.

According to DASD figures, the area under arecanut cultivation in the country has increased from 4.41 lh in 2011-12 to 4.50 lh in 2014-15.

Of this, the share of Karnataka increased from 2.16 lh in 2011-12 to 2.18 lh in 2014-15. Karnataka accounts for more than 48 per cent of the area under arecanut in the country.

The total arecanut production in the country, which was around 6.25 lt in 2011-12, went up to 7.46 lt in 2014-15.

Of this, Karnataka’s share went up from 3.50 lt in 2011-12 (amounting to around 56 per cent of India’s production then) to 4.57 lt in 2014-15 (61.26 per cent of the total production).

Stressing the need for setting up an arecanut board in the State , TN Prakash Kammardi, Chairman of the Karnataka Agricultural Prices Commission, had recently stated that arecanut is being grown in 140 of the 175 taluks in Karnataka.

He had also stated that growers have invested around ₹40,000 crore in arecanut cultivation in the State, apart from spending ₹3,000 crore annually on this.

According to Kammardi, the share of arecanut in Karnataka’s gross agricultural domestic product is around 15 per cent.

Kerala retains the second position both in terms of area under the crop and production.

Though the area under the crop has come down from 1.04 lh in 2011-12 to 96,690 hectares in 2014-15, the production has gone up from 1.21 lt to 1.25 lt during the respective periods.

Homi Cherian, Director, DASD, said that the production of arecanut increased by around 25 per cent in 2014-15 when compared to 2013-14, the area under the crop declined by 3.3 per cent during the period.