An introduction to Pepper cultivation

Peppper, popularly known as the "King of spices" is one of the earliest spices known to man and is today the largest commodity in the interna­tional spice trade. It is the most widely used spice all over the world. Black pepper of commerce is themature dried berries of the woody perennial evergreen climbing vine, Piper nigrum, a species native to the damp jungles of the Kerala coast of South Western India but now widely cultivated in the tropics of both hemispheres.
Viatnam, Brazil, India, Malayasia and Indonesia. are the important pepper producing and exporting countries. These countries provide about 90% of the total world exports of pepper. In Sri Lanka, pepper is cultivated over an area of 11600 ha mostly in the Districts of Matale, Kandy, Kegalle, Kurunegala and Nuwara Eliya. It can be grown both in monoculture and as mixed crop in the coconut and tea plantations using live or dead standards as support. It is an ideal crop for home gardens where it can be trained on the existing tree species as well.