A Quantitative Description of Pepper Cultivation in Kerala

Abstract

In India, Kerala is the largest producer of pepper, accounting over 50 per cent of India’s total output followed by Karnataka and Tamilnadu. But, at a time when black pepper production has seen a drastic fall due to climate change, the unexpected rise in the price of pepper has brought cheer to farmers in Kerala.“The influx of pepper from Vietnam and Sri Lanka was the main reason for the fall in pepper price in the Indian market,” said Binoy Kurian, a spices merchant in Kattappana.“When cheaper pepper from these countries continued to flood the market, the price of pepper produced domestically gradually decreased. There was also a stagnation in the market due to the low price as farmers were not ready to sell their produce.”Hence, the study theoretically analyzes the pepper cultivation, variation in the production and yield rate and cost of cultivation of pepper in Kerala state. Secondary data has been used for the study which includes reports from Department of Economics and Statistics, Indian Agricultural Statistics and other National and International Journals.