Arecanut or betelnut is the product of areca palm. It is used as masticator with or without betel leaves and in various social and cultural rituals of the Hindus. According to De Maritus, it is probably the Sunda Islands, where it was first cultivated. India is the largest producer of areca nut in the world.
Areca nut plant requires hot and humid climate. It thrives well between l5°C-35° C of temperature, 180cm-350 cm of rainfall and well drained late rite, red, clayey loam and alluvial loam soils. Its cultivation extends from sea-level to 1000 m of altitude. It is very often cultivated as a mixed crop along with coconut, jack, mango, banana and spices which offer shade to protect it from the scorching heat.
Areca seeds are first sown in nursery and after 2-3 years these are transplanted into the garden. The plant starts bearing fruits after 8-10 years and continues production up to 30 years. Areca nut fruits are in bunches, each yielding 150-550 nuts. These are harvested from December to March or May to July. The colour of the nut is initially green which changes to brown after ripening. Nuts are separated from stalk, dehisced, sliced, boiled and dried so as to obtain round, elongated and flat nut for marketing.
India is the largest producer of are cannot in the world accounting for 74.68 per cent of its total area and 85.37 per cent of its total production. Three states of Karnataka, Kerala and Assam contribute 90 per cent of the total area and 92 per cent of the total production of areca nut in the country (Table 11. XXI). the area under recant has increased from 94,799 hectares in 1956-57 to 2, 64,000 hectares in 1996-97, a 178 per cent rise. Similarly, the production has risen from 74,759 tons in 1956-57 to more than 3.13 lakh tones in 1996-97, registering an increase of more than 319 per cent (Table 1 lax). Its cultivation provides employment to about 6.25 million persons.
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Karnataka state is the largest producer of areca nut in the country accounting for 30.23 percent of its total area and 41.19 per cent of its total production. Here Uttara Kannada, Shimoga, Dakshina Kannada, Chikmagalur and Tumkur districts are the main producers accounting for 89 per cent of the state’s output.
The state of Kerala accounted for 33.52 per cent of the total area and 27.22 per cent of the total production of arecanut in the country in 1981-82. About two-third of the state’s production comes from Kannur, Malappuram, Kozhikode and Thrissur districts.
Assam produced 24.7 per cent of the country’s areca nut in 1981-82. Most of the production comes from Kamrup, Barpeta, Sibsagar and Darrang districts of the Brahmaputra Valley.
Ratnagiri, Thane and Kolaba districts of Maharashtra; Kanniyakumari, Coimbatore and Salem districts of Tamil Nadu; Meghalaya; Goa, Daman and Diu; West Bengal and Tripura also produce small quantity of areca nut in the country.
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Major portion of the country’s arecanut production is consumed internally leaving out only small surplus for export. Prior to 1974-7f India was importing arecanut from Sri Lanka, Ma laysia and Singapore. It now exports areca nut Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Aden, East Asia, Kenya, United Kingdom, Pakistan and Fiji. In 1957-58 the total quantity was 199 tones which touched its peak in 1984-85 with 783 tones (Raghavendra, 1992, p. 113).
Efforts are being made to increase the production of areca nut in the country. Fair high-yielding varieties have been released by the CPCRI Regional Station, Vittal. These are Mangala, Sumangala, Sree- mangala and Mohitnagar with yields of 3.0, 3.2, 3.18 and 3.67 kg. chali per palm. Scientists are developing dwarf hybrids of areca and adopting mixed crop systems.
Due to predominance of vegetarian diet adequate emphasis has been focused on the production and use of fruits in India. Besides their nutritional value their medicinal uses have been described in detail in many books of Ayurveda. Due to variation in topographic, edaphic and climatic conditions many varieties of fruits ranging from tropical to sub-tropical and temperate types are grown in different parts of the country.
Although fruit-gar- dening has been put on similar footing along with agriculture but horticulture on modern scientific line it the outcome of last two-three decades. Fruits occupy about 52 lakh hectares or 2.2 per cent of the net sown area and their total production were 576 lakh tones (2005-06). Andhra Pradesh (13.97%) is the leading producer of fruits in the country followed