Experts say a major reason for the decline in price is the international market situation which is influenced by Guatemala. Guatemala enjoys a 95 per cent share of the global cardamom market. In fact, since 1985, Guatemala has been gaining grip of the global cardamom market which has been sustainably strengthening its position in the market.Even in the sphere of productivity, Guatemala has been far ahead of India as it has a per hectare cardamom productivity of 600 kilogrammes. Per hectare cardamom productivity in Indiais about 120 kilogrammes.

The low productivity of cardamom in the country is attributable to the high cost of cultivation. High cost of cultivation may deter the planters from availing all the research and development facilities. As also plants may not be getting the right kind of manure mix required for proper and scientific cultivation.

However, research centres have been contributing to improve the cultivation methods aimed at higher productivity.

So far, domestic cardamom consumption pattern has not been assessed comprehensively. The 1996 production was of the order of seven lakh kilogrammes.

Cardamom has, by and large, remained a produce of the southern part of India. While 60 per cent of the produce comes from Kerala, thirty per cent comes from Karnataka. Of late, however, there have been attempts at producing cardamom in the north-eastern region of the country.

The Appangala research station was earlier under the Karnataka government. In the sixties the station came under the Indian Councilfor Agricultural Research. In 19986, the centre, which had been a sub-station under the Central Plantation Crop Research Institute, was transformed to its present form -- Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) -- with its headquarters in Calicut.

The Appangala research station also conducts crop research on pepper, ginger, turmeric and tree spices like cloves and nutmeg.

Technology transfer and demonstrations are some of the related activities of IISR.