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Journalism of Courage
A panic sale triggered by an unexpected,deep correction in the price of cardamom the fall ran contrary to the market forecast for the current season has wrecked fortunes of Keralas cardamom farmers. The state accounts for 67 per cent of the countrys cardamom production. The high ranges of the Idukki district are the spices main cultivating region in the state.
From an all-time high of average price of Rs 1,500 to 1,800 per kg in May-June 2010,the corresponding period this year saw the prices hovering between Rs 700 and Rs 900. Early this year,the farmers had fetched more than Rs 1,200 for cardamom.
Enraged farmers had last week protested at the e-auction centre of Spices Board at Kattappana in Idukki,seeking support price for the produce. Hundreds of farmers had held back the stocks of the last season,expecting that prices would cross Rs 2,000 per kg.
According to Prof K Satheesh Babu,head of Market Intelligence Unit at Kerala Agricultural University,The fall in cardamom prices by half this season is intriguing when elsewhere in the country its being sold for more than Rs 1,500. Besides,Saudi Arabia and UAE,which are major overseas market for Indian cardamom,have started stocking produce from India to meet the demand of Ramzan season that begins August-end. There is no threat for Indian cardamom from Guatemala,where harvesting would begin only two months later. Only Kerala farmers have missed the fortunes.
Dr Babu suspected a deliberate bid to pull down the price by cartels of trades. The cardamom market,which is subject to intense speculation,has controlled-trading,unlike pepper which has open trading. Market could be manipulated by forces in the futures trading,he said.
But Cardamom Growers Association president K K Devasia said the market is flooded with produce. In last May-June,the arrival of cardamom at auction centres was 10,000 to 15,000 kg a day. But in the corresponding period this year,the auction market is flooded with 50,000 kg. He said farmers had held back the stocks last season when the price was in the range of Rs 1,400-Rs 1,500. Media had widely reported that cardamom prices would go up to Rs 2000 per kg.
K T Babu,a cardamom farmer at Kallar in Idukki,said he had held back 800 kg produce when it could have been sold at Rs 1,450.
Recently,I had exhausted the stock at Rs 806 per kg. It was quite natural that farmers would delay selling if better prices are predicted in the future. In 1982,cardamom prices had touched Rs 1,200 per kg. Then,wages for a worker was Rs 15 a day. Now,you have to pay Rs 500 to Rs 600 to get a farm hand for labour-intensive cardamom cultivation. Hence,the prevailing price of Rs 800 would enable us only to meet the expenses.
Last week,Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had convened a meeting to tackle the crisis. It was decided to make bank loans available for farmers on the cardamom stored in the Spices Boards godown in Idukki. Farmers would not be charged any rent until prices improve. He assured the farmers that the Centre would be asked to give a price stability fund of Rs 250 crore.
The spice trail
Cardamom production in Kerala had been almost stagnant with a yield of 50 kg per hectare in the 1980s. But the output rose to 203 kg per hectare by 2001 and later slightly declined to 188 kg in 2009-10. When the area under cardamom cultivation elsewhere in the country shrunk from 0.97 lakh hectares to 0.73 lakh hectares in the last 30 years,in Kerala the same was down from 65,000 hectares to 41,593 hectares in 2009-10. Keralas total production of 8,550 metric tonne in 2008-09 slid to 7,800 metric tonne in 2009-10. The per hectare yield had come down from 206 kg of 2008-09 to 188 kg in 2009-10,according to Kerala Economic Review-2010.
