| Background |
| K.J. Baby has developed a
white flowered variety of cardamom, which has higher yield, oil content
and recovery ratio than the locally popular varieties.Baby is the native
of Ettumanoor and presently resides at Puliyanmala. It was here where he
was born in a farming family along with three brothers and two sisters. As
a child, he was always interested in sports and had a special liking for
football. Later when he was sixteen years old, his interest switched over
to stitching, as he wanted to develop this skill. He continued this till
getting married at the age of 24 years and then he took up agriculture as
a profession. |
| Baby, who studied up to class
eighth, is 66 years now. His family consists of his wife, three sons and a
daughter. Two younger sons (36 and 34 years) assist him in agriculture
while the elder son (39 years) is a cardamom state manager elsewhere;
daughter (41 years) is married.Puliyanmala is a small town, having around
60 per cent Tamil and 40 per cent Malyalee population chiefly comprising
of agricultural labourers. The agricultural crops cultivated by the
farmers in the region are cardamom, pepper, coconut and on a very limited
area, arecanut, banana and lemon are cultivated. |
| In 1965, when their land in
Ettumanoor was bought by the government for establishing industrial
estate, Baby’s family shifted to Puliyanmala and bought a cardamom
estate of around 5 acres. At that time, the climate at Puliyanmala was
colder and hostile so cultivation of pepper in this region was not
feasible and so the family opted for the cultivation of a local variety of
cardamom. It was in late 1970’s that the climate began to change to be a
bit warmer so along with cardamom they started coffee and pepper
cultivation. |
| In 1982, he added 2.5 acres
of land to his total holding through purchase and started growing
cardamom. Somewhere around same time the prices of cardamom started to
rise hence to maximize his profits, he also started making selection of
cardamom so as to develop selections/ varieties that would yield higher.
Their family is a joint family and the total land holding now is close to
20 acres. All of their land is under cardamom cultivation, white flower
variety covers eight acres, while remaining area is under high yielding Njallani,
which covers six acres while another new variety, which he claims to have
developed recently covers remaining six acres. |
| Genesis |
| In 1996, for the first time,
he observed a white flower plant in his cardamom garden, which he had
never heard or seen, and so he isolated it and multiplied it by vegetative
propagation. At that time itself a lot people showed interest in it, but
he did not want to distribute it, as he wanted to observe the results over
a period. By 2001, he had raised around 800 plants, which were similar to
the mother plant and bore white flowers. Same year, when experts from
Indian Institute of Spice Research were visiting his area to inspect
pepper, he invited them to his farm to have a look at his variety. They
appreciated him for his efforts to develop this variety. Thereafter
exposure in media started and subsequently he started selling his seeds
2003 onwards. |
| Being financially sound Baby
did not face any major problems and always had the support of family,
friends and relatives. His wife and daughter-in-laws took personal care of
the plants, from irrigation, manuring to performing associated farm
practices. His wife specially likes this particular variety because of the
enhanced taste and flavour. His three sons have been much interested in
evolving a variety out of the white flowered mother plant and their
involvement, interest and hard work has been instrumental in the
evolution, multiplication and dissemination of this variety over years. |
| Innovation |
| The cardamom variety
developed by Baby, belongs to Vazhuka type cardamom cultivars
bearing purely white flowers, has high productivity than other cardamom
plants and can be grown in waterlogged areas as well. The variety has
wider adaptability to different shade conditions apart from having high
production with good quality that is even higher than other Mysore and Vazhukka cultivars viz.,
Njallani, Green-bold, Palakkudi
and Veeraputhara varieties, which are locally popular. It has
sturdy plants, robust tillers and deeper root system, which makes it
resistant to various biotic and abiotic stresses.The prominent features of
the variety developed by Baby are (a) single tiller planted in the nursery
giving rise to 30 tillers, (b) variety having seed last ratio of around
23-26, (c) recovery ratio of one kg dry cardamom from four and half
kilograms of green cardamom (d) single plant yielding nearly 4 - 5 kg dry
cardamom with size varying from 6 mm to 8 mm and (e) the oil percentage
being 8.9 percent as against 6-7 percent in common varieties. |
 |
| The distribution of this
variety started in 2003 when seeds were provided to 200 to 300 farmers
from Idukki and surrounding districts of Kerala and border districts of
Karnataka covering about 1000 acres of land. As a result, it has now
diffused in Idduki, Wayanad (Kerala) and Chikmangalur (Karnataka) and some
parts of Tamil Nadu.This variety has aroused the interest among the
researchers, as it was believed that the peculiar color of cardamom flower
attracts the insects for pollination, but now presence of white colored
flower of Baby’s variety negates the whole concept. |
| Awards and Appreciations |
| Baby received a ‘Certificate
of Merit’ for being the "Best Cardamom Cultivator" in the
public function conducted in Kattappana Fest 2004 by Kattappan Gram
Panchayat. He has also received a certificate of Appreciation from Asst.
Director of Agriculture, Kattapanna for the new high yielding variety
developed by him. Spices Board, Government of India has given him a
certification mentioning the presence of white flowered characteristics is
unique to farmer-bred variety.Baby, who has rich experience in plantation
crops, desires to share his knowledge with the community. He mentions that
‘as far as agriculture is concerned the selection of best quality
seeds and technical inputs from research and development institutions are
sufficient to prevent losses for the farmers’. The innovator’s
ambition is to identify superior characteristics in cardamom plants and
evolve newer varieties, which can be popularized to benefit the larger
interests of the cardamom grower community. |
