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B. Sasikumar, C.N. Biju*
leAR-Indian InsLitute of Spices Research, M ari kunnu P.O.,Kozhikode- 12, Keral a
*ICAR-IISR Regional Stati on, Madikcri, Appanga la, Karn ataka, Pin- 57 1 201
e-mail: sasikulIIll rsooranadu @glllaif.colII
Clove (Syzygillln aromaticum) was
intmduced to India by the British East
Indi a Company during the 18"'lhe
century from the Malu ku Islands in
Indonesia. Thereafter the spice has
made Indi a its secondary center of
domestication. The impOtt ant clove
growing districts in Indi a now are
Nilgitis, TInmelveli, Kanyakumrui ruld
Ramanathapuram di stricts of Tamil
Nadu , K oz h iko de, Ko tta ya m ,
Ko llam and Thiruvananthapuram
di stricts of Kerala and South'Kanara
district of Karnataka. If clove has
fi rmly moted in South India since its
introduction, it has moted deeply at
Ambanaad estate of the Travancore
Rubber and Tea Co. Ltd, though the
estate is othetwise known for tea and
rubber plantations.
Ambanaad , a sleepy hi g hl and
(2200 ft altitude) in Ko llam district
on the Punalur-Shenkottai Highway,
some 40 km away from Punalur, is
the a bode of th e larges t c love
population in Kerala, if not in Indi a,
thanks to the vision of 70 year o ld
Mr. Ramakrishna Sharma, chairman
of the company! Come January -Februray, the aroma of
freshly picked cloves fills the air and landscape of
Ambanaad! Migrant workers hired by local contractors
spend about two residential months in harvesting,
segregating and transpOlting cloves.
The Ambanaad estate (3000 acres) came
under the Travancore Rubber and Tea
Company Ltd. (Pattom Palace,
TIUllvananthapuram) during 1983-84. Prior
to that, the property was with Harrisons
Malayalam Ltd. (HML). Initially, under
HML there were about 400-500 clove trees
in one division of the estate. Once with the
new owners and management, clove planting
started in a systematic manner annually in
the tea divisions of the estate using the
seedlings of the ebte mother trees available
in the estate besides the seedlings procured
from Nagercoil clove estates.
At present there are 10627 yielding trees
and 21508 juvenile trees of one to 40 years age as
intercrops of tea and the estate has a very good clove
nursery raised from the seeds of elite mother trees in the
estate. During April-May ripe clove fruits or Mother of
clove are collected from elite mother trees and sown in
arecanut, coffee, etc. are raised as
rain fed crops. About 5000 nutmeg
trees are also there amidst the clove
and tea plants (There are about 277
allspice, 100 cinnamon and 3000
black pepper plants as well in the
estate). Vermicompost (35-40 t)
produced in the estate, plus farm yard
manure and inorganic fertilizers are
the nutrient sources to the plants.
Local contractors bid for the clove
hruvest every yeru·. Owing the CWTent
season clove was auctioned for
Rs. 2.5 crores! Depending on the age
of the tree and season, 25-75 kg raw
cl ove is obtained from a single tree.
The harvested produce is sorted into
buds , leaves and stalk s and
transported to Nagercoil for up
process mg.
Ambanadu estate has 10627 yielding dove trees and 21508
juvenile trees of one to 40 years of age
as intercrop of tea, 25 to 75 ~ilos of raw clove
are obt~ned from asingle tree
nursery beds. Young sprouts are
periodically removed from the beds
and individually tran splanted in
polybags. One year old seedlings are
used for field planting. The target for
new planting in 20 15 is a whooping
17000 seedlings! Hea lthy clove
seedlings are also available for sale
from the estate. Though clove is
usually grown as a monocrop in other
places, at Ambanaad estate it is an
intercrop of tea!
Seedlings come to bearing by the
4'h yea r of pl anting. The es tate
receives an annual rain fall of300 cm
Processing is mainly done by sun
drying the buds on tiled noors. It is
told that dlying on tiled nool'S give the
characteristic golden black colour or
chocolate hue to the buds. The sun
dried produce is then graded and sold
to north Indian buyers.
Contact details:
The Travancore Rubber and Tea
Company Ltd Ambanaad, Kallam
and all crops in the estate including
Head Office: Pattom Palace,
tea, rubber, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, Thiruvananthapuram, Phone:
black pepper, allspice, cocoa, 8589037043