Can cashewnut, pepper, clove be used as a natural “preservative” to increase the shelf life of peeled arecanut? Yes, say some arecanut growers whose peeled arecanut have no takers now due to the nationwide lockdown. Many farmers who have peeled arecanut in stock are worried about preserving and marketing the produce.
Shrikumar Katribailu, a doctor-cum-arecanut grower at Ishwaramangala, near Puttur, told The Hindu that if a kilogram of raw cashewnut or its husk is mixed with a 65 kg bag of peeled arecanut of ‘chali’ variety (or white arecanut), it can be preserved in its original form up to six months. If a farmer is using the husk instead of raw cashewnut, the oil from the husk should not have been extracted. Hence, the husk purchased from cashew factories will not serve the purpose, he said.
Dr. Katribailu said that both can be used to preserve raw arecanut as well for long. The same quantity (one kg) of raw cashewnut or its husk can be mixed with a raw arecanut bag weighing 20 kg or having 2,000 to 2,500 raw arecanuts in the bag.
He said that farmers can also use pepper as an alternative to raw cashewnut and its husk to increase the shelf life of arecanut. A kilo of pepper can be added in a bag of peeled arecanut. The jute bag used for packing the arecanut should be covered with a plastic cover to prevent the moisture issues during the rainy season.
Saishekar B., another arecanut grower from Panja, near Kukke Subrahmanya, said that if 50 bags of peeled arecanut are stocked in a room the produce can be preserved up to one year if four bags of pepper are stocked in the same room. His family has been doing the same for more than five decades now, he said.
Avinash Mullankochi, another grower from Kasaragod district of Kerala, posted in a social media group ‘arecanut growers’ that if 20 cloves are added in a 50 kg of peeled arecanut bag the produce can be preserved up to one year. He usually did the same.
