E C O L O G I C A L    F A R M I N G

Areca Nut, Supari, Betel Nut

The arecanut palm (Areca catechu L.,) is a significant commercial and business crop of India. It plays an important role in the political, social and cultural functions and the economic life of people in our country. The arecanut has spreading its uses in Ayurvedic and veterinary medicines of animals. Popularly known as betel nut or supari in our traditional country and which is growing in large quantity of many countries, like India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines and some of the Pacific Islands. The economic production of arecanut is called “betel nut” and is used mainly for masticator purposes by the people of India. The raw kernel is chewed by Indian population in tender, ripe or processed form. It is processed and used into panmasala, gutkha, scented supari etc. are some treated which are become more popular in the country. The cultivation of arecanut production can be traced back to Vedic periods, where we can see the use of it. Under arecanut production India is in first position with respect to area (43.01%) followed by Bangladesh (33.00%), Indonesia (11.27%) and Myanmar (5.71%). Similarly, with respect to the production also India ranked first (50.37%) followed by Bangladesh (18.27%) Myanmar (11.31%) and Indonesia (7.37%). Further, arecanut also cultivated in small scale in some countries like Nepal, China, Srilanka and Malaysia. The average productivity of arecanut at world level stood at14.60 q/ha. Among different arecanut growing countries, Srilanka stood first with a productivity of 35.14q/ha followed by Nepal was (33.10q/ha) and Myanmar (29.00q/ha). Although, India stands first in global production, its performance in productivity is poor with its global ranked 7th in terms of productivity with productivity level of 17.15q/ha which considered almost on par with world productivity level. (2021-22) The states which predominately grown arecanut in India are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, West Bengal and Pondicherry. Furthermore, Karnataka and Kerala states have the significant share which together accounts more than 80 percent of both in area and production of the arecanut in the country. With respect to the area under arecanut across different states, Karnataka ranks first with a 5,00,522 hectares with production of 10,81,840 tonnes followed Kerala with an area of 96,921 hectares with production of 92,755 tonnes, Assam with an area of 67,021 hectares with production of 50,040 tonnes, Meghalaya with an area of 17,951 hectares with production 24,467 tonnes and West Bengal with an area of 11,890 hectares with production of 23,857 tonnes of arecanut produce during the year 2019-20. The present study attempts to examine the trends in area, production and productivity of arecanut in India and Karnataka as whole.