Value chain analysis of Large Cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxburg) in Bhojpur, Nepal

Abstract

Large Cardamom is a high value spice crop having substantial export potential. The study was conducted on Feb-May, 2019 in Arun rural municipality, Bhojpur municipality and Sadananda municipality with an objective to analyze existing value chain of Large Cardamom in Bhojpur district of Nepal. In total, 150 Large Cardamom growers were selected using purposive sampling technique. In addition to that, 17 traders from the Bhojpur, Khadbari and Birtamod were also selected for the study. Findings showed that farmers were interested in Large Cardamom industry due to good return and high profit margin per unit of commodity. The benefit-cost ratio was found higher in Arun village municipality (1.735), followed by Sadananda municipality (1.467) and Bhojpur municipality (1.263). Increasing disease and pest attack and low seasonal price are the major problem in production and marketing of Large Cardamom respectively. Harvested capsules of Large Cardamom were dried using traditional drier (bhatti) that make the dried capsules prone to quality degradation. Value addition practices such as grading, tail cutting were found poor in farmer level. Producer’s share and marketing efficiency were found highest when farmers sell their product directly to exporter and lowest in domestic market channel. Demand and supply of Large Cardamom in Indian market was most determining factor for price fixation of Nepalese Large Cardamom. Thus from the study it is recommended to improve production process through appropriate mechanization, along with possible efforts in identification of potential international markets and possible ways for direct export to third countries which could help farmers to receive higher price.

Prospects of Crop Insurane as a Risk Management Tool Among the Banana Farmers of Kanchanpur District, Nepal

“…This indexing technique was used to calculate the constraints associated with potato production in the Terai region and wheat production (Subedi et al, 2019a;Subedi et al, 2019b). Similarly, this technique for ranking of marketing problems in large cardamom and seed production & marketing constraints in maize respectively (Joshi and Kalauni, 2020;Shrestha and Shrestha, 2017).…”

Review on Status of Large Cardamom (Amomum Subulatum Roxb.) Production and Marketing in Nepal

“…Kalauni and Joshi also observed that the famers in the region of study area were not performing the grading and polishing value adding steps (Kalauni and Joshi, 2020). Curing is also an important step for large cardamom processing and it is usually done using traditional bhattis made by locally available materials requiring no scientific knowledge (Singh and Pothula, 2013;Bhutia and Sharangi, 2018).…”

“…According to the farmers, an extra charge is added while performing the tail cutting using machine or scissors (Singh and Pothula, 2013). So, majority of the farmers perform it in the traditional way of massaging the produce (Kalauni and Joshi, 2020).…”

“…Curing is also an important step for large cardamom processing and it is usually done using traditional bhattis made by locally available materials requiring no scientific knowledge (Singh and Pothula, 2013;Bhutia and Sharangi, 2018). Multiple marketing channels are observed but most of the Nepalese cardamom produced is sold either directly from home to the local collectors or sold through the district level collector (Kalauni and Joshi, 2020;Kalauni and Joshi, 2019;Bhandari and Bhandari, 2018). In the case of export of the produce in the international market the marketing channel via India and low-quality standards has created barrier in the bargaining power and reduced the potential value in the foreign market (Gadtaula, 2019).…”

“…As a constraint in the post-harvest process the use of the traditional bhattis in the curing process decline the quality of produce. Smoke and fire from the bhattis deteriorate the capsule in direct contact rather than ovendrying them (Kalauni and Joshi, 2020;Poudel and Chen, 2012). This makes the exported produce fail to meet the international standards.…”