TN: Minister for revamping plantation sector

Chennai, July 1: Union Minister of State for Commerce, Jairam Ramesh, today called for a complete revamping of the Plantation sector in the country to make it more research-intensive and market-driven.

He said ''the problem with the traditional crops such as tea, coffee, rubber, spices and coconut were that they had been focussed only in Kerala''. There were tremendous possibilities for growing rubber in the north-east, he added.

Mr Ramesh said non-traditional spices, such as, mint, coriander, fennel and fenugreek, were being grown in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa were big cashew producing States, he added.

He said there had to be a national vision to address these sectors. The approach, hitherto, had been crisis-driven, he added.

The government was reacting only when prices fell or in times of drought, but that was likely to change, the minister said on the sidelines of an expert consultation on 'Shaping the future of Plantation Crops' at the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) here.

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

Mr Ramesh 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,'' 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, he added.

He said while rubber was an outstanding success story, reaching the top status in productivity, there was a need to move away from monoculture, or planting just a single variety.

UNI