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Revamp plantation sector: Jairam Ramesh

Ramya Kannan

— Photo: S. R. Raghunathan

Jairam Ramesh (right), Minister of State for Commerce, M. S. Swaminathan, Chairman, MSSRF and V. L. Chopra, Member, Planning Commission (left) at a seminar in Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI: Minister of State for Commerce, Jairam Ramesh, has called for a complete revamping of the plantation sector in the country — to make it more research-intensive and market-driven.

The problem with the traditional crops such as tea, coffee, rubber, spices and coconut was that it has been focussed only in Kerala. There were tremendous possibilities for growing rubber in the North-East; non-traditional spices such as mint, coriander, fennel and fenugreek were being grown in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan; and Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa were big cashew-producing States, he said. There had to be a national vision to address these sectors. The approach hitherto had been crisis-driven, Mr. Ramesh said, with the government reacting only when price fell or in times of drought. However, that was set to change, he added on the sidelines of an expert consultation on ‘Shaping the future of Plantation Crops’ at the M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) here on Saturday.

The Minister earlier held discussions with the MSSRF chairman M.S.Swaminathan to bring modern science and technology into the plantation sector.

He recommended greater institutional collaborations between the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Commodity Boards and private research institutions. “We need to take a consortium approach to agriculture.”

A massive rejuvenation exercise was on the cards for tea, coffee, rubber, pepper, cardamom and cashew to address a main issue in the plantation sector — senility of crops.

“Anything over 40 years loses its value. That is why we are going in for replantation,” he said.

The Ministry was also examining the possibility of a cashew board, to operate on the pattern of the Rubber Board that had a vertically integrated model, covering research, production, value addition and marketing. While rubber was an outstanding success story, reaching the top status in productivity, there was need to move away from monoculture or planting just a single variety, he said.

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