The Hindu Online edition of Indias National Newspaper Thursday, Mar 25, 2004 About Us Contact Us Sci Tech Published on Thursdays Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Entertainment | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio | Sci Tech Printer Friendly Page Send this Article to a Friend Promising tree for commercial plantation By Our Agriculture Correspondent MACADAMIA, A promising evergreen tree, producing tasty edible nuts, is an ideal candidate for commercial plantation in the country. Ideal locations for growing this tree on a commercial scale are available in TamilNadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, North-eastern States, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, according to Mr. K.V.S. Krishna, a veteran tea planter of South India, specializing in high-value plantation crops. Macadamia nuts are the worlds most favoured and also the most expensive of all edible nuts. Though they are not nutritionally superior to cashew nuts, they win over it with their finer taste, explains Mr. Krishna. The global demand for Macadamia nuts is growing over the years, and its production has not kept pace with demand. In India, it can be raised in over 10,000 hectares, and the nuts can be a good money-spinner and foreign-exchange earner, says Mr. Krishna, who has extensively surveyed the areas of its cultivation in Australia and identified suitable belts for its cultivation in India. An evergreen tree growing to a height of about 30 metres, Macadamia is believed to be a native of Australia. It belongs to the family Proteaceae. The most popular varieties grown around the world are Macadamia integrifolia and Macadamia tetraphylla. They are commercially grown in Hawaii, South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Brazil, Fiji and California, according to him. Among the commercially important species, Macadamia integrifolia and its varieties are adaptive to diverse agro-climatic conditions. Macadamia tetraphylla and its cultivars are more adaptive to cooler climate. Macadamia, in general, prefers well-drained deep soil and it comes up well in regions with temperatures ranging between 13 and 31 degrees Celsius and with mean annual rainfall above 125 cm. The tree is propagated through seeds and vegetative means. Seedlings as such, or after grafting with the desired cultivars and also cuttings, are used for planting. Usually several cultivars are planted in blocks to ensure better pollination, and in commercial plantations, grafts are preferred for planting as they assure uniformity in production, productivity, quality and in the out-turn of kernel per nut, according to Mr. Krishna. The trees begin to flower in 5 to 7 years after planting. Flowering spreads over several months and the nuts require about seven months to mature. The tree continues to yield nuts for well over 50 years. A fully matured seed is spherical with 2 to 7 mm thick fibrous green husk. Inside it is the 2 to 3 mm hard shell enclosing an almost round white kernel. The average yield of a tree a year is 50 kg, and many plantations exceed an average production of 80 kg nuts a year per tree. Harvesting, mostly by collecting the fallen nuts from the ground, is done all through the year. Post-harvest processing involves de-husking the nuts, drying the nuts and separation of the kernel. De-husking of freshly collected nuts and subsequent drying are to be done within 24 hours. Otherwise, the quality will deteriorate, according to him. The production of Macadamia nuts could reach 1.2 tonnes a hectare by the 10th year of planting. It could go up gradually to reach a peak production of 3.5 to 4.0 tonnes a hectare, when the trees are 25 to 30 years old, according to him. The international price of Macadamia nut is U.S. dollars 14 per kg. Considering the likely profitability of the crop and the expanding global demand for the nuts, the State horticultural departments should pay particular attention to promote this promising crop, said Mr. Krishna. Printer friendly page Send this article to Friends by E-Mail Sci Tech Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Entertainment | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio | Archives Datewise News News Update Front Page National States: • Tamil Nadu • Andhra Pradesh • Karnataka • Kerala • New Delhi • Other States International Opinion Business Sport Miscellaneous Index The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home | Comments to : thehindu@vsnl Copyright © 2004, The Hindu Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 09:59:49 +0000
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