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Abstract
The habits, habitats, morphological characters, propagation methods and uses of six indigenous spice species are studied to explore their wide scale use. These plants viz. Agyajal (Eupatorium sp.), Gennum (Allium sp.), Sugandhi Batali (Persicaria sp.), Tonigok (Piper longum), Polao pata (Pandanus sp.) and Sinduri Beez (Bixa orellana) are used as spices by the local, indigenous and tribal people traditionally. They have immense medicinal value and are easy to grow in the homesteads with little care. Their wider use can reduce the dependency on many commonly used spices especially the imported cumin, cinnamon, common garlic, mints, curry leaf and edible chemical dyes etc.
Introduction
Spicy food is the tradition of Indian Civilization from the time immemorial. Flavoring food and making it tasty by adding different plant parts during cooking or making paste or salad is a very common practice everywhere. Spices are the symbol for aristocracy, health, tonic, immunity, vigor and stimuli. A Bangladeshi cannot think of a meal without using spice.
Underneath the taste and flavor the spices posses immense nutritional and medicinal value which is proved by the today’s scientists. The Arabians and the western traders realized the value of Indian spices and trading began thousand years back. Global trade in spices is expected to attain higher levels due to anticipated advances in the global food industry, and is posed for a major leap in the 21st century (Singh, 2002).
The widely used spices are onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, chili, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, coriander, cumin, mints, fenugreeks, fennel and tamarind etc. Besides these, there are many more spices are used by the people of different locality. Spices are the plant parts may be the whole plant, bark, stem, leaf, root, rhizome, flower, fruit, and seed. Spices contain alkaloids, flavoproteins, carotenoids, oleoresins, steroids, and oils etc., which are the sources of flavor, color and stimuli.
The commercial products of these spice crops are whole spice, ground spice, spice oil oleoresin etc., and find applications in flavoring and coloring food, pharmaceutical, perfumery and cosmetic industries.
Now-a-days spices are valuable trade commodities in the world. They are expensive but widely used, demand and supply gap is also increasing. Although a proper statistics of production and consumption is not available but it is true that a good quantity of spices is being imported every year to meet the huge demand of 160 million people of the country at the cost of foreign currency and simple estimate reveals that a daily expenses is about BDT 40 million for spices only. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics the production and import of spices for the fiscal year 2000-2001 is given below. Spices become agenda for politics by creating crisis in the market during the festivals like Ramadan, Eid, Puja and Christmas etc.
Table No. 1: Production and yield of spices and the value of the produces for the year 2000-2001:
|
Spices |
Area X 1000 Hector |
Production X1000 M.T. |
Yield Kg/Ha. |
Value BDT |
|
Chillies |
177.3 (438 Acres) |
141 |
790 |
|
|
Onion |
34.0 (84 Acres) |
127 |
3,730 |
|
|
Garlic |
13.36 (33 Acres) |
39 |
2,910 |
|
|
Others |
28.74 (71 Acres) |
87 |
3,020 |
|
|
Total |
253.4 (626 Acres) |
394 |
1,550 |
12,572,000,000 |
|
Commodities |
Import value BDT |
|
Pepper |
29,190,000.00 |
|
Nutmeg, Mace, Cardamom |
22,131,000.00 |
|
Vanilla |
82,000.00 |
|
Cinnamon |
158,740,000.00 |
|
Clove |
6,320,000.00 |
|
Fennel, Anise, Coriander |
38,076,000.00 |
|
Ginger, Saffron, Turmeric, Bay leaf |
111,015,000.00 |
|
Onion, Garlic, Fresh Chili |
471,599,000.00 |
|
Total |
837,153,000.00 |
Source: Agricultural Statistics: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics 22nd Edition-2001
As it is the food habit, the increasing demand cannot be ignored with the increasing population. To meet this demand, supply should be ensured by production or by importing sufficient quantity. It is true that our researchers are trying to develop techniques to grow more spices, although it is not yet sufficient. Mass production of superior quality planting material, exploitation of biotechnology, productivity improvement, disease management through biocontrol measures, multipronged approach towards transfer technology, special program for export oriented production, infrastructure for value addition and scientific storage are the few areas should immediately be looked into.
However, to address the problem
following options can be considered:
1.0 Production of more spices
2.0 Change of food habit
3.0 Search for alternative spices
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