Tree Crops: Harvesting Cash from the World's Important Cash Crops PDF
Preview Tree Crops: Harvesting Cash from the World's Important Cash Crops
Kodoth Prabhakaran Nair Tree Crops Harvesting Cash from the World’s Important Cash Crops Tree Crops Kodoth Prabhakaran Nair Tree Crops Harvesting Cash from the World’s Important Cash Crops Kodoth Prabhakaran Nair Villament G3 C/o Dr. Mavila Pankajakshy Malaparamba, Kozhikode, Kerala, India ISBN 978-3-030-62139-1 ISBN 978-3-030-62140-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62140-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland I dedicate this book, written under the most trying circumstances because of the global COVID-19 pandemic, to the memory of my late parents, my father, Kuniyeri Pookkalam Kannan Nair, an illustrious police officer, who served the British Police and was honored with the King George V medal for bravery and honesty, and my mother, Kodoth Padinhareveetil Narayani Amma, daughter of the aristocratic Kodoth family of North Malabar, Kerala, India, both of whom left me an orphan at a tender age, but whose boundless love and blessings made me what I am today. Acknowledgments I am very pleased to gratefully acknowledge the purposeful discussions that I had with Ms. Margaret Deignan, Senior Editor, Springer, in finalizing the contents of this book. Ms. Malini Arumugam, Project Coordinator, Ms. Metilda Nancy Marie Rayan, Project Manager, and her team did a remarkable job in the production pro- cess. It was a pleasure working with her. vii Introduction Industrial tree crops contribute substantially to the economy of many developing countries on the Asian, African, and Latin American continents. With the World Trade Organization (WTO) substantially focusing on agriculture, the commercial aspects of growing these crops assume considerable economic significance. Within the developing world, there are countries whose economic sustenance depends solely on these crops. Even within the geographical boundary of a country, there are states whose economy is exclusively linked to certain crops. For instance, within India, areca nut, coconut, and rubber contribute substantially to the economy of the state of Kerala in southern India. Within the Asian continent, oil palm contributes substantially to the economy of Malaysia and Indonesia. Palm oil, a cheap source of cooking oil, is fast replacing fossil fuels as a “green fuel” from which diesel is extracted. Currently, while a ton of crude oil costs ix x Introduction around US$600 (although the price surge seems unstoppable as this book is being written), palm oil is quoted at more than US$800 a ton. The global commercial impact of these developments can well be predicted. With global warming becom- ing a very serious issue for human survival, as has recently been demonstrated in the Copenhagen Summit on climate change, with fossil fuel consumption consid- ered the main culprit, there is an ever-growing need for green fuel. Palm oil fits the bill. Within the African continent, tea, coffee, and cocoa contribute substantially to the economy of countries like Kenya and the Republic of Cameroon. On the Latin American continent, rubber is a very valuable foreign export. India grows some of these crops that contribute substantially to the country’s economy. The Ministry of Commerce of the Government of India has established several commodity boards like the Rubber Board, the Tea Board, the Coffee Board, and others that coordinate the research, development, and commerce of these crops. The Rubber Board has played a very effective role in the research, marketing, and development of natural rubber in India. In the past, tea, coffee, and rubber were grown as “plantation crops” on the Asian and African continents by the colonial powers, where one can still see very large estates, covering hundreds of acres, of these crops. For instance, in India, there are large estates of tea in the northeast and of rubber in the south, in the state of Kerala. Most of these estates were controlled by the colonial powers, primarily the British. With the political changes that took place in these continents in the late 1950s and early 1960s and the independence from the colonial powers that fol- lowed, the ownership returned to native hands. Simultaneously, a large number of smallholders came into existence. This happened also in the case of areca nut and coconut in Kerala. Areca nut is a masticatory nut that is paired with the “betel leaf” (an annual twiner) and tobacco along with lime (CaO), which gives a red color to the saliva, for the practice of “chewing,” a popular habit in many parts of India and Pakistan. In fact, an important market for areca nut from India is Pakistan. In addition, the dried nut is processed into a scented end product known locally as supari, which is very popular both in India and Pakistan. The coconut tree is known as Kalpavriksha, a term mentioned in ancient Sanskrit literature, meaning “Heaven’s Tree.” Coconut provides ingredients for cooking from its endocarp (the grated pulp), which is essential in South Indian food prepara- tions, especially those in Kerala. Its edible oil—most of the cooking in Kerala is done in coconut oil, which has a high percentage of unsaturated fats, now consid- ered “unhealthy” by the medical fraternity, though there are differences of opin- ion—has a large market. The oil extracted from the shell is an industrial lubricant. Tender coconut water is a highly nutritious health drink. It can even be used to cul- ture cells. Tea and coffee are beverage crops. Cocoa is not only a beverage crop, but it is the main source in the manufacture of chocolate. Cashew is turning out to be a very important industrial tree crop of India. A highly nutritive nut, free of cholesterol, it Introduction xi has a global market and finds its use in bakery and sweet (particularly Oriental type) preparation, and the cashew nutshell liquid (CNSL), or cashew shell oil, finds its use in many industrial purposes. Of late, its false fruit is increasingly used in the produc- tion of ethanol, another green fuel. In rural India, the false fruit is used in the manu- facture of illicit alcohol. Tannin is extracted from the bark of wattle for tannery industry. In summary, the book is an invaluable compendium of scientific and develop- mental information and that would serve a large audience of academics, researchers, developmental policymakers, and the millions of students of agriculture from the developing world. Contents 1 Arecanut (Areca catechu L.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Origin, History, and Geographical Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Botany and Taxonomy of the Areca Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 The Cytogenetics of the Areca Palm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Genetic Resource Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Areca Crop Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Agronomy of Arecanut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Soil and Climatic Requirement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Management Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Irrigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Arecanut Nutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Arecanut Physiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Mixed Cropping Systems in Areca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Arecanut Pathology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Arecanut Entomology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Arecanut Nematology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Harvesting and Processing of Arecanut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 A Look into Arecanut’s Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2 Cashew Nut (Anacardium occidentale L.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Area and Global Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 The Indian Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 World Trade in Cashew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 The Tale of Cashew Trade in India Over the Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 The History, Evolutionary Origin, and Distribution of Cashew . . . . . . . 34 Economic Botany of Cashew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Taxonomy of the Cashew Plant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Cytogenetics of the Cashew Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Collection, Conservation, and Cataloging of Genetic Resources of the Cashew Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 xiii
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