The Spices Board has announced new schemes for pepper growers in order to make Indian pepper competitive in international markets and to bring in economies of scale in production. All the schemes are designed to motivate the growers to produce export quality pepper by ensuring clean and hygienic practices.
The schemes initiated are installation of pepper threshers for hygienic separation of pepper berries from the spikes, the other components are provision of bamboo mats for drying pepper in hygienic conditions, cleaning and grading units and user-friendly ladders for harvesting from the vines. It is expected to benefit the growers in terms of minimizing the operations costs and mitigating the labour shortage problem as it covers all sectors of harvesting, cleaning and drying.
The Spices Board has proposed to provide over 1,100 units of pepper threshers in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and North Eastern states.