Spices Board of India and DBT-SABC Biotech KISAN hub, in partnership with key stakeholders prepare a roadmap to boost export of coriander & minimize import to increase farmers’ income

The Spices Board of India and DBT-SABC Biotech Kisan Hub in collaboration with ICAR-NRCSS, RSAMB and Kota Agriculture University organized the World of Coriander webinar ‘Accelerating Quality Production, Post-Harvesting, Value Addition & Export of Coriander from India’ on 4^th January 2020, with participation of more than hundred key stakeholders from various states.

The Hadoti region of South-East Rajasthan and Guna district of Madhya Pradesh is known for coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) production and contributes major share in coriander export from the country.

Considering the vast potential of Hadoti-Guna region, Sh D Sathiyan, Chairman-cum-Secretary of the Spices Board of India urged the entrepreneurs and exporters to tap the tremendous opportunities in export of whole coriander and other processed products such as coriander split (daal), powder and essential oil. Smt Anu Shree Poonia, Spices Board Member, underlined the need for integrated and coordinated efforts from all departments to make Rajasthan the next spice manufacturing and export hub. With the same outlook, Sh PM Suresh Kumar, Director, Spices Board highlighted about common facility centre established by Spices Board in Spice Parks located at Jodhpur, Ramganj Mandi(kota) and Guna andon increased demand for Indian Spices in the International market, particularly Coriander.

Sh Tara Chand Meena, Administrator and Sh M L Gupta, Director (PHM), RSAMB, Government of Rajasthan talked about various schemes, incentives and funding opportunities at minimal cost being worked out to set up agri-infrastructure, processing and value addition as part of different schemes under PM-FME scheme, agri-export policy, FPOs, ODOP and Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. The role of FPOs in supplychain viz. collection, aggregation and delivery were explained by Sh T VenkatKrishna General Manager of NABARD.

Dr. S.S. Meena, Principal Scientist, ICAR-NRCSS, Ajmer and Dr. Pratap Singh, Director (Research), Kota Agriculture University, Kota emphasized on varietal improvement and screening of different cultivars, promotion of IPM based good agricultural practices (GAP) and popularization of disease resistance varieties such as RKD-18 and ACR-1 to overcome the menace of stem gall (longia) disease, which is becoming an extreme concern  for farmers resulting in the contraction of planting of coriander in Hadoti region in recent years.

Dr ShrishailKulloli of Spices Board drew attention on the value addition of coriander like vinegar, sausage, coriander powder and essential oils, through accelerated processing mechanism and preserving quality of coriander products through proper storage facility. Dr Dinesh Singh Bisht, Spices Board, highlighted the quality issues in coriander and reminded exporters to comply with quality standards and tackle issue of pesticide residue and sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) with a great consideration to meet the growing quality requirements of importing countries particularly from developed countries including Japan, EU and USA.

Sh. Yashwant Bafna, Chairman, APMC, Ramganj Mandi and Sh PCK Maheshwaran, Coriander exporter deliberated on challenges faced by processers, industry and exporters and urged the Govt  to take immediate  measures to salvage farmers, industry and exporters from coriander price manipulation.

Summing up the world of coriander webinar, Dr Bhagirath Choudhary, Board member, APEDA and Director, DBT-SABC Biotech Kisan Hub appealed for implementing an actionable plan to increase quality production, aggregation by FPO, post-harvest management, value addition and export of coriander from India. Production of coriander seed varieties resistant to stem gall (longia) disease, the distribution of quality seeds to increase seed replacement rate (SRR), good agricultural practices (GAP) and IPM based production system were proposed.

Exploring value added products such as Indian curry powder and mouth freshener imbued by coriander were suggested as way forward to increase coriander usages both in domestic as well as export market.

Ramganj APMC Mandi located at Kota district is the largest coriander mandi in Asia, and thus Ramganj is also known as the ‘Coriander city’. Recently, GOI’s Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI) has assigned ‘Coriander’ to the district of Kota in the list of One District One Product (ODOP).