A Study of Arecaunt Production in South India

Abstract

Ranked as one of the principal commercial crops of South India.the arecanut (Areca catechu)has also been a very popular masticatory all over this country from times immemorial.Either by itself in its varied fresh or processed forms or in combination with the leaves of the betel vine(Piper betel.)a little lime and sometimes with also pieces of clove.nutmeg.tobacco etc.the arecanut has become an alost invariable feature of Indian hospitality."Pansupari"is the name by which this dessort or after-dinner masticatory is known all over India,representing perhaps the largest common factor in the dietry habits of the people of this sub-continent.In rituals and offerings too,the nut or inflorescence of the area palm has gained for itself a great prominence in South Indian life,so that this crop is entitled to be reckkoned as an essential part of the life and living of the inhabitants of this part of the country.A study of this crop and its production methods will have,therefore,an interest and value from the view points of the South Indian economy no loss than that of the social life of the region.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.194932

Pages

163 - 177

Creative Commons

Copyright

© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Madras Agricultural Students' Union in Madras Agricultural Journal (MAJ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited by the user.

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