Growth performance of production and trade balance of spices in India

Horticultural sector provides avenue to the farmers for crop diversification and sustaining farmers’ income. India is the leading producer and exporter of spices. Trade is considered one of the most important trigger for economic development. Total value of horticultural crops was Rs 4516.93 billion and share of condiments and spices was 14.67 per cent during 2015-16. Present study was an attempt to estimate the growth performance and trade balance of Indian spices. Results suggest that, area under chilli, cardamom and pepper was declining, whereas area under garlic, ginger and coriander was expanding during 1997-98 to 2017-18. Production and yield of spices were registered positive growth trend. The inter-annual variation for area, production and yield was very high. Decomposition analysis suggests that area was the most important factor for increasing production of spices. In 2017-18, export from agricultural sector was Rs 2515.64 billion, import was Rs 1520.95 billion and trade balance was Rs 994.69 billion. In 2017-18, trade balance for spices was 129.78 billion. The negative trade balance was observed for pepper, cardamom (large) and other spices, whereas rest of spices registered positive trade balance. Study advocates to harness full potential of spices by developing suitable and high yielding varieties of spices.