Spices Park likely in Kodagu district

If the Karnataka govt provides 50 acres, there is possibility of the park in Kodagu

A Spices Park may be set up in Kodagu district, famous for spices and coffee.

To a proposal by Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha, the Spices Board under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, its Chairman A Jayathilake has promised to look into the MP’s suggestion.

Speaking at the board’s 80th trimonthly meeting at Srinagar, Simha had asked the board to set up a Spices Park in Kodagu as it was famous not only for coffee but also for black pepper.

Neighbouring Sakaleshpur in Shimoga district produced world grade cardamom, while in Mysuru district, huge quantities of ginger was available. Hence, setting up of a Spices Park in Kodagu district would be ideal.

If the state government provided a 50-acre land, there was every possibility of the park coming up in Kodagu, he said.

Another Spices Park would be established in Haveri district which is famous for the ‘Byadagi’ chillies, after 50 acres is handed over to the board, Pratap Simha added.

Meanwhile, a ginger training and exhibition was organised here at the College of Horticulture at Yelachanahlli, Yelwal, on June 30 by the College Extension Education Unit for farmers from Chamarajanagar, Hunsur and Hassan districts. Farmers around this region have been growing these crops for five-eight years, after being introduced by the traders of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the border areas of Chamarajanagar district.

Although farmers have accepted this new crop as a lucrative and remunerative one, the package of practices was not well known. Hence, the extension unit had come forward to organise a training programme on ginger. About 100 farmers attended the training programme where farm scientists from Suttur, Gonikoppa, Mysuru University and Department of Horticulture gave them the inputs.

Inaugurating the training programme, Bengaluru’s University of Agricultural Science retired dean K T Shivashankar asked the farmers to follow the advanced technologies in ginger cultivation, to harvest rich dividends.

He also cautioned them that after harvesting a ginger crop it was very difficult to raise any other crop. He suggested that they form an association of growers to discuss their problems.

An exhibition was also organised with the objective of displaying products of ginger, disease symptoms, portrays, diseased and infected specimens of ginger crop.