Price fluctuation of large cardamom and It's impact on livelihood: A study of Phungling Municipality Ward No. 11, Taplejung, Nepal

Abstract

Nepali large cardamom (Amomum Subulatum Roxburgh.) – also known as ‘black gold’ or ‘black cardamom’ and locally called alainchi belongs to the botanical family called Zingiberaceae. Large cardamom was introduced to Nepal in the 19th century by Nepali laborers working in Sikkim, India, in the Ilam district and so on in other districts. Since 1953, commercial production has begun in Nepal, and it has gradually evolved into a new source of income for Nepalese farmers. It is currently a high-value cash crop with expanding market demand both domestically and internationally. Contrastingly there is a great scope of large cardamom cultivation in Nepal because of wide climatic variation to grow different varieties of cardamom and its market value and demand in foreign market. Similarly, there is a great scope to improve farmer’s living standard and to uplift national economy. The fluctuation in the market price directly affects the production of cardamom and livelihood. The general objective of the study is to know the production of the cardamom and its factors affecting productivity and investigate the price fluctuation of large cardamom and its impact on the livelihoods of farmers in Phungling Municipality ward no 11 of Taplejung district. The specific objectives of the study are find out the current status of cardamom production and examine the reason of pricing fluctuations from 2017 to the present. The descriptive and exploratory research designs were used in this study. This study were applied purposive sampling for area selection. The major finding and recommendation of the study is that though some constraints were associated with cardamom cultivation, from the socio-economic perspective, it was beneficial to the rural livelihoods but from the environmental aspect it has somehow affected biodiversity conservation thus leading to the demise of some species and creating monoculture in cultivation. Cardamom marketing system of Nepal should be made systematic. Nepalese cardamom market limited so it is necessary to search new market overseas. There is always fluctuation in the cardamom price. So government should be well prepared to interfere and fix price conducive to farmers.