Spices Board ropes in AIR to educate farmers

The Spices Board and the All India Radio station of Kozhikode are jointly producing a new programme in the form of a series on spices.

It will be broadcast from January 9 to April 9, 2004, a Spices Board official said here today.

Titled 'New expectations in spices', the series will seek to create awareness among growers and farmers about issues like organic cultivation, organic certification, procedures to be followed by farmers and farming groups, production of organic pesticides and fertilisers and cultivation, nursery and replanting practices.

There will be special focus on plant care and plant protection relating to vanilla as well as tips on processing and marketing of vanilla.

The series will deal with medicinal properties of spices like sweet flag, greater galanga and pepper long. Some capsules will be on spices with commercial potential, as well as cultivation of cambodge.

The research activities of Spices Board and its publicity and promotion related activities for spices as well as farmer welfare programmes will be broadcast.

The series will be on the waves from the AIR station of Kozhikode and will be relayed by all stations in Kerala viz Thiruvanathapuram, Thrissur, Kannur, Kochi and Devikulam.

The programme is slotted for broadcast on every Tuesday at 6.50 pm. Question-answers will be dealt with on every Friday at 6.50 pm.

The various capsules in the series will be handled by experts from the Spices Board, Kerala Agricultural University, Indian Institute of Spice Research and the state government's department of agriculture.

The Spices Board proposes to release a publication based on the content of the series and the lessons broadcast.