International Journal of Horticulture, 2017, Vol.7, No.30, 275-287
275
Research Article Open Access
Post Harvest Processing of Moringa and Socio-Economic Appraisal of Moringa
Orchards in Tamil Nadu
C. Sekhar
1
, N. Venkatesan
2
, A. Vidhyavathi
1
, M. Murugananthi
3
1 Department of Agricultural Economics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore – 641 003, India
2 Department of Social Sciences, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Killikulam- 628 252, India
3 Department of Agricultural and Rural Management, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore – 641 003, India
Corresponding email
International Journal of Horticulture, 2017, Vol.7, No.30 doi
Received: 30 Oct., 2017
Accepted: 07 Nov., 2017
Published: 22 Dec., 2017
Copyright
©2017 Sekhar et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Sekhar C., Venkatesan N., Vidhyavathi A., and Murugananthi M., 2017, Post harvest processing of Moringa and socio-economic appraisal of Moringa orchards
in Tamil Nadu, International Journal of Horticulture, 7(30): 275-287 (doi
Abstract
The word Moringa is Magic to Many of the consumers both in India and many other countries. Because of the nutritional
and medicinal importance of Moringa, the demand for Moringa and its value added products are increasing which in turn permits
enhanced area under Moringa from the supply side and hence a study has been taken up in the Western and Southern Part of Tamil
Nadu to analyze the reasons for taking up Moringa plantations in a large scale and their economics. This paper has identified few
factors which are influencing the cultivation of Moringa and the factors governing the profitability of Moringa. The Economic
appraisal tools have revealed that the Moringa cultivation is profitable and hence the detailed analysis of costs and their return is
presented and discussed. Besides, the nutritional and medicinal importance coupled with the steps involved in post harvest
processing are also discussed for the benefit of Processors.
Keywords
Moringa; Varieties of Moringa; Processing of Moringa; Socio-Economic Appraisal; Cost of Production; Costs and
Returns
1 Introduction
Moringa (
Moringa oleifera
Lam.) belongs to the family ‘Moringaceae’ is a fast growing multipurpose medicinal
tree extensively grown in tropics and subtropics of India and Africa. It is also widely distributed in India, Egypt,
Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Burma, Pakistan, Singapore, West Indies, Cuba, Jamaica and Nigeria.
In eastern and southern regions of India, Moringa is widely used as vegetable and grown commercially for its
edible pods and leaves.
Moringa oleifera
is an important food commodity which has had enormous attention as
the ‘Natural Nutrition of the Tropics’. Almost all the parts of this plant: root, bark, gum, leaf, fruit (pods), flowers,
seed and seed oil have been used for various ailments in the indigenous medicine of South Asia, including the
treatment of inflammation and infectious diseases along with cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, haematological and
hepatorenal disorders.
Its popularity is increasing steadily because of its nutritional, medicinal value and for its
sweetness in curry and slurry preparation along with red gram dhal. From that one could understand the
importance of Moringa
(
D’Souza and Kulkarni, 1993; Anwar and Bhanger, 2003; Anwar et al., 2005)
.
2 Moringa in India
India is the prime producer of Moringa (Drumstick) with an annual production of 2.2 to 2.4 million tonnes of
tender fruits from an area of 43600 ha leading to the productivity of around 50 tonnes per ha. Among the different
states, Andhra Pradesh leads in both area and production (15,665 ha) followed by Karnataka (10,280 ha) and
Tamil Nadu (13250 ha). In other states, it occupies an area of 4,613 ha. Tamil Nadu is the pioneering state as it
has varied genotypes from diversified geographical areas, as well as introductions from Sri Lanka.
3 Moringa Cultivation in Tamil Nadu
3.1 The perennial Eco-types of Moringa
The cultivation of Moringa in India occurs mainly in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and
Andhra Pradesh. Principally perennial types have been known for cultivation for a very long time. However,
perennial types are beset with many production constraints, such as a relatively long pre-fruit bearing period, non
