Amomum subulatum Roxburgh, Sikkim

Amomum subulatum Roxburgh, (Family: Zingiberaceae, 2n=24 chromosome), commonly known as Thulo Elaichi (Bada Elaichi) is a perennial, monocieous and pleasant aroma bearing herb (Sajini et al, 1997). It is one of the oldest spices from Ayurvedic and Unani preparations dates back to 6^th century BC as mentioned in Sushrutha (Sharma, 2000). Its seeds contain 2 to 3 per cent of essential oil and possess medicinal properties like carminative, stomachic, diuretic, cardiac stimulant, antiemetic, etc. It is also used as a remedy for throat and respiratory problems.

Since ages, large cardamom has been a main cash crop of Sikkim cultivating well under the shade of Alnus nepalensis and Ficus roxburgii forests in the sub Himalayan Mountain ranging from 1000 to 2000 m elevations above msl. as agroforestry crop.

Fruits of large cardamom have a high value in global markets. However, the situation of the crop over the last few years has not been encouraging. After reaching a peak production of 5401 MT in 2003-04, production has continuously been declined and is estimated to have fallen further to 2881 MT in 2007-08. In terms of value, experts have consistently been fallen from Rs 20.57 crore to 16.95 cores during the period 2002-2003 to 2006-07 and reached 10.5 crore in 2008 -09 (Avasthe et al., 2011).

Sikkim was the largest producer of cardamom in the world. However, for the last decade the production of large cardamom in the state has been rapidly declined due to the infection by many diseases despite of placing many efforts by Sikkim Government to control the diseases. Diseases, such as, chirkey (viral) and phurkey (viral) are the main causal organisms, which have destroyed more than 70% of large cardamom fields in Sikkim.

Habitats in Sikkim offer all the conditions necessary for propagation of large cardamom. The state government also encourages cultivating large cardamom for meeting out the demand of domestic and global markets. But, farmers are losing interests in cultivating the large cardamom due to lack of quality planting material, socio-economic conditions, proper scientific technical know-how and poor management strategies of the agencies concerned. Seed propagation is also not preferred by cardamom farmers because of variations in plant which takes long time for fruiting (Subba, 1984). It is felt that the traditional way of cultivating the large cardamom requires some advance scientific inputs or modifications.