Cardamom

Cardamom
 
Cardamom: Elletaria cardamomum
Family: Zingiberaceae
The genus Elettaria consists of about seven species distributed in India, Srilanka, Malaysia and Indonesia. Only E. cardamomum occurs in India and this is only economically important species. Closely related E. ensal, native to Sri lanka, is a much larger and slender plant known as Sri Lankan cardamom. Twin advantages of vegetative propagation and viable sexual reproduction, cardamom offers immense scope for crop improvement. Thrust areas in the improvement programmes identified are
  1. High yield of capsule
  2. Selection of plants with bold capsules and more number of seeds /fruit
  3. Resistance to biotic stress viz., viral diseases such as katte and kokkekandu and fungal diseases such as rhizome rot, clump rot and capsule rot so as to produce cardamom capsules free from the residues due to excessive plant protection chemicals.
  4. Tolerance to abiotic stresses especially drought
  5. Higher percentage of dry capsule recovery (> 22%)
  6. Higher seed: husk ratio.
  7. Breeding for higher quality i.e. higher percentage of essential oils, ά- terpenyl acetate which is responsible for the aroma and flavour
  8. Developing location specific varieties suitable to different agro-climatic conditions.
     

Last modified: Monday, 30 January 2012, 9:12 PM