PALAKKAD: The Agriculture Department in association with the Spices Board has embarked on a scheme to mint money in Palakkad district. It will cultivate Japanese mint (mentha arvensis, pudina in local parlance) on an experimental basis in 85 cents of land in the current winter months for the first time in the state.“The revenue from one acre of Japanese mint cultivation will be Rs 1.80 lakh. It is estimated that 240 to 300 kg of essential oil can be extracted from one acre. There are two varieties of mint - Japanese mint and vegetable mint. The Japanese mint is highly priced in the international market for its high menthol content,” said District Collector K V Mohan Kumar who inaugurated the cultivation of the Japanese mint in the Eruthenpathy seed farm of the Agriculture Department on Thursday.“There will be eight sites which include the Eruthenpathy seed farm, Nelliyampathy orange farm, Attappadi Cooperative Farming Society, land of two farmers in Chittur and two others in Attappadi. The Agriculture Department will supply the roots and the produce will be bought by the Spices Board which will also market it,” said Principal Agriculture Officer Saramma Thomas.“Mint cultivation will be very remunerative for the farmers here since it requires sub-tropical to tropical climate at temperatures ranging from 20 to 40 degree celsius, with fertile soil and annual rainfall of 150 to 200 cm,” said Assistant Collector Mohammed Y Safarullah who is the coordinator of the project.He added that a team consisting of representatives of the Spices Board, Kochi, Department of Agriculture, Palakkad, Regional Agricultural Research Station, Pattambi, under Kerala Agricultural University, and district authorities visited the farm of Thiruvenkitam in Nagur village of Tamil Nadu where Japanese mint was cultivated and found that it could be a potentially remunerative inter-crop for Palakkad farmers.
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