Production and Price Behaviour of Small Cardamom in India: An Evaluation

Cardamom known as the queen of spices in India is one of the major spices produced in India. It is a native to South India especially to the Western Ghats of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. India and Guatemala are the major producers of cardamom. Cardamom may be of two types, viz. , large (black) and small (green). Both the production and price of cardamom are instable and so the revenue to the farmers also shows such irregularity. In this paper an attempt is made to analyse the trend and growth in terms of production, area and productivity of small cardamom in India, the relationship between production and price of small cardamom and the prices of small cardamom on monthly, quarterly and seasonal basis for the period from 2014-15 to 2019-20. It is found that there is no remarkable increase in the area of cultivation of small cardamom throughout the period of study whereas the production and productivity varies. The average monthly prices showed significant variation whereas the seasonal average prices did not show significant variation. There is significant relationship between production and price and the correlation was highly negative. The difference between the highest average price quoted in a month and the lowest average price is seen to be very high and highly detrimental to the interests of the farmers and the industry as a whole. The plantation faces much difficulty due to variations in prices and production. The present e-auction system also failed to provide fair prices on the basis of quality of the product as there are wide fluctuations in the prices quoted for similar lots in the same auction. For the continuation of this cultivation, introduction of a good pricing mechanism is the need of the hour.