Kerala: Excess rains, unusual climate hurts plantation crop prospects
A view of a cardamom plantation in Poopara, Kerala.
| Photo Credit:
K K Mustafah
Excess rains, coupled with uneven climatic conditions, in the plantation crop growing regions of Kerala this year is seen hurting the prospects of crops such as cardamom, tea, pepper and rubber among others.
Copious rains in March, April and May have hit the cardamom plantations badly with wind damage that led to tree fall, fungal disease such as capsule rot (azhukal) and rhizome rot (clump rot) among others. This has affected productivity by around 10-15 per cent of the projected crop, which is expected to be lower at around 30,000 tonnes. As carry forward stocks are less compared to last year, the market is expected to move forward strongly. The prices in the auctions are hovering in the range of ₹2,450 per kg, S B Prabhakar, a cardamom planter in Idukki said.
The tapping of natural rubber has also been impacted, especially in the early morning heavy downpours even for rain-guarded trees and this has led to drastic leaf fall which is expected to hit the yield. The loss of production days due to rains was around 20-25 days during May, June period, said George Valy, president of Indian Rubber Dealers Federation. With rains subsiding, tapping has re-started and the sector is expecting a good yield in the coming months, he added.
A senior official in a tea plantation company said that excess rains coupled with reduced sunshine hours in July have affected photosynthetic activity of the plants, thereby affecting the crop health. This unusual climate change has put the entire plantation industry in a severe crisis, affecting crop production and leading to an unsustainable increase in production cost. This has led to a severe drop in prices leading to existential crisis of various tea plantation companies. There are a lot of tea gardens that are on the verge of closure because of this unsustainable and unviable situation, the official noted.
There are reports of falling tender spikes of pepper due to heavy rains and winds in Idukki which may affect the next 2026 crop despite a better crop in the region this year. However, the exact damage would be known by end of September or early October, according to Kishore Shamji, a pepper trader. Erratic rains also affected pepper production in Karnataka, but the formation of tender spikes was less compared to last year, he said, adding that Tamil Nadu also gave a similar feedback. At the same time, there was a slowdown in demand in many upper Indian markets due to floods. The prices are ruling at ₹682 for ungarbled and ₹702 for garbled grades.
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Published on August 22, 2025
