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

New Delhi, 6th January 2021

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 4th 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 and on 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 supply chain viz. collection, aggregation and delivery were explained by Sh T Venkat Krishna 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 Shrishail Kulloli 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.