Vanilla was introduced in India, probably by the British at Kutrallam in Tamil Nadu owned by the East India Company, more than 200 years ago. India has the ideal climatic conditions for growing vanilla. At present Karnataka has the largest area under vanilla. The districts of Wynad and Idukki in Kerala, Andhroth Island in Lakshdweep, Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu and Mangalore and Madikeri in Karnataka are a few areas ideally suited for vanilla cultivation. According to IISR, Appangala, the entire Western Ghats region in Karnataka, comprising Kodagu, Uttar Kannada, parts of Hassan, Chikmagalur and Dakshina Kannada are suitable. Besides vanilla can be raised as intercrop with coffee, coconut, areca nut, and pepper etc.

The global production of cured vanilla is estimated at around 5,583 tonnes from a total area of about 40,846 hectares during 2001. The global demand is likely to go up at the rate of 4-5 percent per annum in the coming years. At present, the country production is about 404 tonnes annually but our requirement is 2020 tonnes per year. The natural product meets hardly 15 percent of this demand. Hence the scope for vanilla is considered bright with the current growth rate of 5.75% annually.

Vanilla cultivation, considered the Golden crop because of its high returns next to that of saffron. The Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar commands a premium price and in fact, 70 percent of world supply is from Madagascar. In Indonesia, the second largest producer, vanilla is cultivated in Java and Bali Islands. Other important producers are Comoro, Mexico, Reunion Islands and Tonga. The major markets for vanilla are the US, France and Germany and these three countries account for 80 percent of world imports, with the US absorbing 50 to 60 percent of it. There is ongoing effort to substitute natural vanillin for synthetic vanillin al over the world. As of now 84 percent of the world consumption of vanilla comes from synthetic sources, which leaves a bitter after taste and is not considered healthy, as it is extracted from the sulphate wastes of paper mills and other synthetic sources.

Vanillin Applications

Vanillin is widely employed in many perfumes and used for imparting aroma to chocolates, ice creams, confectionary, cocoa drinks, soft drinks, bakery items and other food products. Vanillin is also used for fragrance formulation for personal care, detergents and others, Globally, around 70 percent of vanillin has been used as flavouring agent in food industries and rest is used in deodorants, perfumes and other fixatives and as chemical intermediates. The consolidated Indian demand for vanillin during 1998 is Chocolates-15, Biscuits-50, Ice-creams-25, Perfumery/flavour 135, Agarbathi-220 and Pharmaceuticals-5 and a total-450 tonnes per annum.

Botany of Vanilla

Botany : Porters is Bouriquet (1954) describes 110 species of vanilla, distributed through out the world. Vanilla belongs to the Orchidaceous family, which is the largest family of flowering plants. Apart from the large number of ornamental species, which are grown for the flowers, vanilla is the only genus, which is of economic importance. The correct name of the commonly cultivated vanilla of commerce is Vanilla fragrance, two other species are occasionally cultivated, but yield an inferior products, they are vanilla pompana and vanilla tahitensis.

Structure : Vanilla fragrance is a flashy, herbaceous perennial vine, climbing by means of adventitious roots up trees or other supports to a height of 10-15 meters. In cultivation it is trained to a height of 2m, which will facilitate hand pollination and harvesting. Roots are long, whitish, aerial, adventitious roots, about 2mm in diameter, are produced singly opposite the leaves and are firmly pressed to the support up which the plant climbs. Stems are long, cylindrical, monopodial stems, simple, branched, succulent, flexous and brittle. The internodes are 5-15 cm in length. Leaves are large, flat, fleshy, oblong elliptic to lanceolate. The inflorescences are stout, axillary, usually simple, and only rarely branched. They are usually borne towards the top of the vine and are 5-8 cm. Long, with up to 20-30 flowers, but more usually 6-15 opening from the base upwards, generally with only 1-3 flowers open at one time and each lasting one day. The flowers are large, waxy, fragrance, pale greenish yellow and 10cm. Diameter. The fruit is capsule, known in the trade as beans, is pendulous, narrowly cylindrical, obscurely three angled, 10-15 cm. Long and 5-15 cm, in diameter. In commercial production the capsules are harvested before they are quite ripe.

Pollination : Self-pollination of the individual flower is impossible due to the flower is impossible due to the peculiar structure of the flower. Since the contact between stamen and stigmatic portions are prevented by a structure called rostellum, artificial pollination by hand is the only way to pollinate the vanilla flowers. In Central America it has been reported that bees of the genus Melapona and humming birds pollinate vanilla flowers. But the chance of natural pollination was reported to be only 1 percent. The method of and pollination was discovered by Morren in Liege in 1836 and Edmond Albius discovered a practical method of artificial pollination in 1841, which is still used. The vanilla flowers open early in the morning; they are receptive for eight hours and wither the following day. Fruit set is highest when pollination is done early on bright mornings following rain. If fertilization has been successfully achieved, the flowers remain on the rachis; if unsuccessful, the flowers drop off in two or three days. Hand pollination is done with a splinter of bamboo or other material about the size of a toothpick. The flower is held in one hand and the labellum is pushed down with the thumb releasing the column. The stamen cap is removed by the stick, which is held in the other hand, which exposes the pollinia then the flap like rostellum is pushed up under the stamens with the stick and, by pressing with the thumb and finer, the pollinia are brought into contact with the stick and, by pressing with the thumb and finer, the pollinia are brought into contact with the sticky stigma to which the pollen mass adheres. A skilled worker can pollinate 1000 flowers a day. There can be 18-20 inflorescence in a plant. Only 10-12 inflorescences with 8 should be kept per vine so that high quality beans are produced.

Major types of Vanilla : Vanilla beans differ in chemical, physical and organoleptic properties not only according to the species, but also within a species, depending on the geographical source and the physical form or grade. The major types of vanilla were Mexican vanilla, Bourdon Vanilla, Indonesian vanilla, South American and West Indian Vanilla, Tahiti Vanilla and Guadeloupe Vanilla.

Cultivation of Vanilla

Climate : Vanilla usually grows climbing on trees in wet tropical lowland forests with elevation of 700 to 1500m MSL. It thrives best in hot, moist, insular climate, with frequent, but not excessive rain. The optimum temperature is 21-300C, with an evenly distributed rainfall of 1500-2500mm, 2-3 drier months to check vegetative growth and bring the vines to flower.

Soil : It is adoptable to a wide range of soil types provided there is plenty of organic matter. The land should be gentle slope with light friable sandy loam to laterite soils, adequate but not excessive drainage, and a thick surface layer of humus or mulch in which the roots can spread. It prefers a Ph range of 6 to 6.5. Partial shade is necessary and the shrubs or small trees upon usually provide this, which vines are grown.

Propagation : Commercially vanilla is propagated through vegetative means. The cuttings should be taken from healthy vigorous plants and may be cut from any part of the vine. Depending upon the availability of planting materials the length of the cutting is determined. Shorter inter nodal cuttings of about 20 cm in length; will take 3-4 years to produce flower and fruit. Normally cuttings with 90-100 cm in length are preferred. It is usual to remove two to three leaves from the base, which is inserted into the humic layer and mulch. With short cuttings, as least two nodes should be left above ground. The portions above ground should be tied to the support until the aerial roots have obtained a firm grasp. Because of their succulent nature, cuttings can be stored or transported for periods of up to two weeks if required.

Supports : The vines of vanilla require support on which to climb, and also light shade; too dense shade and full sunlight are both deleterious. Support trees cuttings of 1.5 to 2.0m length and 5 cm. Diameter should be planted 6 month in advance of vanilla planting. The ideal shade tree should be quick growing, providing light, checked shade; have sufficient low branches providing easy access to the vanilla; be strong enough to support the vines in strong winds; and be easily pruned when necessary. The common support trees are coffea Liberia, Erythrina lithosperma, Artocarpus heterophyllus, Gliricidia maculata, plumaria alba, Casuarina equisetifolia.

Planting and after care : the cuttings are planted at a spacing of 2.5 to 3.0m between rows and 2.0m within rows near support trees. While planting the cuttings 3-3 basal leaves in the cutting should be removed & this defoliated portion is laid on the loose soil and covered with thin layer of about 2-3 cm soil. Closely planted vanilleries usually gave very high initial yield, but after few years which will be attracted by disease problems. This usually gave very high initial yields, but presented gave problems of access and disease control later. It is necessary to train the vines so that they may grow at a convenient height for pollination and harvesting. The vines are twisted round the lower branches of the supporting tree or over the lattice of the trellies so that they may hand down. The top 7.5 - 10 cm of the vine is usually pinched out 6-8 months before the flowering season to encourage the reproduction of inflorescences in the axils of the leaves of the handing branches. Vanilla usually starts flowering in its third year after planting, the time taken depending on the size of the propagule. Depending upon the place of cultivation, flowering starts from December to March. It takes 45 days from initiation of inflorescence to opening of first flower. The maximum production of flowers is reached in 7-8 years. As the flower opens, the requisite numbers are hand pollinated. Only the flowers on the lower side of the raceme are pollinated in order that the fruits may grow perpendicularly to produce straight beans; those on the upper side would produce crooked beans of inferior quality. When the desired number of fruits has set, the remaining buds are removed, which may be done by clipping off the tip of the inflorescence. Damaged and malformed capsules are removed during growth.

Manuring : The main source of nutrients to vanilla is decomposed mulch. Application of inorganic fertilizers at the rate of 40-60g N, 20-30g P205 and 60-100g K20 per vine per year in 2-3 split doses for efficient uptake is advisable. Since vanilla response more to foliar application, one of the above split doses may be given through foliar application.

Harvesting and Yields : The optimum time for harvesting bean is dark green, with yellowing of distal end when its rips. It is essential to pick the pods at right stage as immature pods produce and inferior product and if picked too late they will split during curing. They may be harvested by sideways pressure of the thumb at the base or by cutting with sharp knife. The time between flowerings to harvesting is 9-11 months. About 6 kgs of green pods produce 1 kg - cured beans. Curing should begin within a week of harvesting the beans. After fruiting, the old stems and weak branches are pruned off. The tree supports or shade should be pruned to provide 30-50 percent of full sunlight and to induce branches at the correct height for training the vines. Seven-year-old good vanillery will produce the maximum yield of about 500-600 kgs of cured beans per hectare per annum. The total life span of vanilla is taken as 20 years. Vanilla vines yield starts from third year of about 60kgs per ha, 150 kgs in the fourth year and 300 kgs from the fifth year to the tenth year.

Processing

Curing of vanilla beans : The aroma/flavour character determines the quality of cured vanilla beans. Other factors of significance in quality assessment are the general appearance, flexibility, the length and the vanillin content. Top quality beans are long, fleshy, supple, very dark brown to black in colour, somewhat oily in appearance, strongly aromatic and free from scars and blemishes. A number of procedures have been evolved for the curing of vanilla, but four steps characterize them all, a) Killing or wilting b) Sweating c) Drying d) Conditioning. After conditioning, the cured beans are given an airing and are re-straightened by drawing through the fingers. The beans are then subjected to a final sorting into grades and according to their length, prior to bundling and packaging for shipment. The vanillin content of properly processed beans will be around 2.5-3 percent with moisture content of 18-20 percent.

Spoilage of vanilla : Vanilla plants are generally free of pest and diseases. Fungal diseases like shoot tip rot, stem and bean rot, immature bean rot are commonly seen. Stem rot and immature bean shedding are due to Fusarium oxysporum. The disease-affected portions may be sprayed with fungicides such as Bordeaux mixture or 0.2 percent Indofil - M45 (2gms in 1 liters of water). Vanilla beans are quite susceptible to infection by Penicillium and Aspergillus moulds and this generally occurs during the conditioning and subsequent storage periods. Infection always begins at the stem end of the bean and, if left uncontrolled, the whole bean becomes wrinkled, dry and acquires a disagreeable odour. Mould infection most frequently occurs with beans, which have been harvested before they mature. Development of mould is also encouraged if the beans are not killed properly, as they do not dry uniformly, and if the beans have excessive moisture content on conditioning. Sweating and drying the beans in the sun also leads to a higher incidence of mould than when an oven is used. Other contributors are dirty blankets and a general lack of cleanliness and ventilation in the curing room. Vanilla beans are prone to attack by mites of the Tyrophagus species, which imparts a disagreeable odour to the beans. The mites appear during conditioning, shipment of subsequent storage and may be detected by the small holes, which they produce in the beans. In case of limited infestation prior to shipment, alcohol treatment or sunning is often effective.

Present price situation of vanilla :

1. Processed beans - Rs. 25,000/kg.
2. Fresh beans - Rs. 3.500/kg.

1. Since vanilla is an orchid, coffee plantation provide natural forest ecosystem for its development.
2. Availability of wide varieties of natural shade trees in coffee ecosystem.
3. Rich organic and leaf litter/mulch availability in coffee plantations all along the year.
4. There is no risk of spread of vanilla disease or pests to coffee plants.
5. Even and high rainfall, sunlight and moisture in coffee system.
6. No additional supports are required for raising vanilla due to presence of shade trees.
7. No additional chemical fertilizers or plant protection chemicals for vanilla.
8. Higher availability of natural pollinators in coffee ecosystem helps vanilla also.
9. Vanilla is well matched with pepper, arecanut, coconut which are grown with coffee.
10. Better exploitation of space, labour and materials.
11. Availability of trained hands in coffee plantations for pollination of vanilla.
12. Direct procurement of green beans from farm by trading agents.
13. Additional income from vanilla apart from primary crop.
14. High revenue from unit area compared to principal crop.