Arecanut production sees 55{744e41c82c0a3fcc278dda80181a967fddc35ccb056a7a316bb3300c6fc50654} jump in 5 years

Arecanut output in the region has seen a growth of fifty five per cent in excess of the very last 5 decades, if the published reply in Rajya Sabha is any sign.

The full arecanut output improved from seven.thirteen lakh tonnes (lt) in 2015-16 to 11.07 lt in 2019-twenty, registering a growth of fifty five.twenty five per cent.

In a published reply to the Rajya Sabha member KC Ramamurthy, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, reported that Karnataka, Assam, Kerala, Tripura, Meghalaya and West Bengal are the big producers of arecanut in the region.

ARECA Output (in tonnes)

(Resource: Rajya Sabha reply)

Karnataka, which contributes just about 75 per cent to the domestic output, observed a growth of 95 per cent in output in the earlier 5 decades. Whole output in the State improved to 8.5 lt in 2019-twenty from four.36 lt in 2015-16, registering a growth of ninety four.95 per cent.

It reported that the region and output of arecanut has been revised in Karnataka from 2018-19 onwards, primarily based on the finish enumeration working with GPS-enabled cellular application for estimation of region underneath diverse crops.

Kerala and Meghalaya observed a drop in arecanut output in the course of the period of time amongst 2015-16 and 2019-twenty. The output arrived down from 1.02 lt in 2015-16 to 63,000 tonnes in 2019-twenty in Kerala. In Meghalaya, the output dipped to 24,010 tonnes in 2019-twenty as from 26,200 tonnes in 2015-16.

The minister’s reply reported that most of the arecanut manufactured in the region is consumed domestically and India’s share of export in the world current market is less than 5 per cent.

When the member desired to know the constraints confronted by the ministry in constituting an ‘Arecanut Board’ on the lines of Espresso Board, Rubber Board, Tea Board, and so forth, the minister replied that there are by now a variety of organizations this sort of as the Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Progress (DASD), the Central Plantation Crops Investigate Institute (CPCRI), and the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Advertising and Processing Cooperative Ltd (Campco) that are operating to endorse arecanut and safeguard interests of arecanut farmers.