Growth and Instability in Significant Spices in India: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Background: India stands first in the production of most of the spices. Still we are not able to exploit the full potential of these spices since these are often subjected to wide price unsteadiness in the domestic as well as international markets which results in fluctuations in production and yield too rendering an intense discuss on spices growth and instability. The present study carried out to examine the trend in growth and instability of major spices grown in India. Methods: The growth and instability analysis was carried out at nationwide. The required data for the present study was collected for the period 1990-91 to 2018-19 which were further divided into three sub-periods. On the basis of highest area and production six major spices namely, pepper, cardamom, chilli, ginger, turmeric and coriander growing in the country was selected for the study. The growth rates were worked out by fitting the exponential growth function and instability analysis was used by generating Cuddy Della instability index. Result: The analysis has revealed that most of the spices have recorded a positive and significant growth rate in all the sub-periods. Sub-period I (1990-91 to 1999-2000) emerges to be the stable period in most of the spices which also recorded a notable growth rate compared to other sub-periods. However, sub-period II (2000-01 to 2009-10) witnessed a slow pace of growth in pepper and cardamom which registered a negative growth in area, production and yield. On the other hand, the study has shown comparatively unstable behaviour in most of spices in sub-period III (2010-11 to 2018-19).