Ministry of Commerce And Supplies - Enhanced Integrated ...

N T I S2010Table 2.2Large Cardamom: Acreage, Production and YieldYear Area (ha) Production (MT) Yield (MT/ha)2001/02 10,840 6,179 0.572002/03 11,095 5,880 0.532003/04 11,220 5,983 0.532004/05 11,347 6,086 0.542005/06 13,193 6,647 0.582006/07 13,237 6,792 0.512007/08 13,784 7,087 0.51Source: Statistical information on Nepalese agriculture, HMG/MoACQuality of Product: According to traders, Nepali large cardamom is preferred over Indian large cardamom dueto its quality. It could be further enhanced by undertaking value adding activities like tail cutting, grading bysize, and cleaning, which at present are mostly done in the Siliguri market. Nepalese exporters in Birtamodand Dharan have started undertaking such value adding activities in the last few years.Productivity: While the average productivity of large cardamom for Nepal is 540 kg/ha, productivity levelcould easily be increased to about 600 kg/ha and could go as high as 800 kg/ha through proper management,adequate shading, and manuring practices.Availability and Quality of Labour Force: Traders think that labour productivity is very low. Experienced andskilled farm labour is available and in abundance. There is a shortage of skilled labour that could do the valueadding activities. Traders have to depend on Siliguri for the supply of such labour. Lack of skills is mainly dueto lack of formal training.Labour Cost and Overall Production Cost: Labour cost is higher compared to the costs of other inputs. A smallproduction cost advantage exists in the use of water and packaging materials.Level of Processing Technology: Drying of large cardamom is the major activity in its production process.There are two systems of large cardamom processing in Nepal: drying in traditional bhatti and drying inimproved bhatti. 7 The efficiency of the traditional drying technology is very low. Both drying systems arecostly. Firewood is still used to dry large cardamom. The quality of product depends on the type of the bhattitechnology that is used. Large cardamom dried in the improved bhatti is of better quality and fetches higherprice as well. But less than 10 per cent of total production is dried in improved bhatti. Efforts are underwayto introduce improved bhatti, but it is still not widely adopted. In a period of two years, 43 improved bhattiwere installed in Ilam to dry only about 50 MT of large cardamom.Cost and Quality of Infrastructure: According to industry sources, infrastructure costs are considered highcompared to the competitors, especially fuel (firewood) and transportation.Efficiency of Domestic Supporting Industries: The overall efficiency of supporting services is considered high.But forward or backward linkages in the supply chain are non-existent. Farmers themselves dry their largecardamom and take it to the market to sell or sell to collectors or middlemen at the farm after drying. The roleof input supplier is minimized as most of the inputs used are farm-based and very few farmers use chemical7The traditional bhatti has a two feet thick stone wall structure on three sides and a wide opening in the front for burning large wood logs.Fresh cardamom capsules are spread in a 10-12 inch thick bed on the mesh structure placed on the stone walls. Nearby trees are cut into logsand these wet logs are then burnt inside the bhatti structure below the cardamom bed. Thus, the cardamom bed is exposed to thick smokegenerated during burning of wet wood. It takes about 30-50 hours to dry the cardamom.24NEPAL TRADE INTEGRATION STRATEGY 2010BACKGROUND REPORT