Guwahati: What was once known mainly as a prized flavouring for cakes and ice creams is now transforming lives in Assam’s forest villages. In a quiet success story unfolding across forest-fringe communities in lower Assam, villagers are turning to commercial vanilla cultivation, boosting household incomes while steadily reducing their dependence on forest resources.In Assam, Vanilla planifolia, widely used in food and pharmaceutical products, is being cultivated in several districts, particularly in Garo-populated areas along the Meghalaya border. Grown as an intercrop with betel nut in home gardens, vanilla has emerged as a profitable livelihood option for Garo families through the sale of raw and cured beans, as well as vine cuttings.In Neapoli village in Goalpara, vanilla cultivation has become a major source of income for more than 50 families. Apart from selling their produce in the Goalpara vanilla market, farmers are also supplying it to an exporter at Mendipathar in neighbouring Meghalaya.“On one bigha of land, some of our families can earn around Rs 1 lakh a year from vanilla cultivation, which is six to seven times higher than income from rice cultivation,” said Gladwin Momin, a farmer from the village.The office of the Silviculturist, Assam, under the Research & Education Circle at Basistha, has launched a series of conservation, propagation and training initiatives to promote vanilla cultivation. It has started propagating vanilla saplings through two-node vine cuttings.“Vanilla cultivation holds significant potential to improve livelihood standards in the rural economy. Involving forest villagers and forest-fringe communities in this cultivation can substantially reduce their dependence on forest resources. Being a vine, vanilla requires no additional land for plantation and can be intercropped in baris alongside areca nut or similar host trees,” Conservator of Forests, Research & Education Circle, Dimpi Bora, told TOI on Sunday.“In Assam, mostly Garo people have traditionally been involved in vanilla farming. We want to popularise it among other tribes and communities, especially in forest-fringe villages where the hilly terrain and climate support vanilla cultivation,” said Preeti Buragohain, deputy conservator of forests and Silviculturist, Assam.She said the initiative has now expanded beyond Goalpara’s Garo villages to Kamrup district. Members of the Pub Palahpara Joint Forest Management Committee under Singra Range were trained in vanilla cultivation, crop management, post-harvest handling and bean curing at Dudhnoi. Around 200 vanilla vine cuttings were also distributed free of cost.Forest-fringe communities under the Pub Palahpara, Nagaon, Bherbheri and Jupangbari Joint Forest Management Committees have now been selected for the pilot project.“Since harvesting can be done after three years and the market is already well established, we are hopeful that villagers will take up vanilla cultivation seriously and get remunerative prices,” Bora added.
