Multiplication and distribution of ‘Viswasree’ variety and other elite lines of nutmeg The cultivation of nutmeg is attracting the attention of farmers owing to the steady increase in demand and attractive prices. The Spices Board under the Ministry of Commerce is also encouraging its cultivation due to the anticipated increased use of nutmeg products in European markets and also because of the ideal agro-climatic situations prevailing in South India for its cultivation. It is argued that India has the potential to be a world leader in nutmeg production and export. As a result, there is a huge demand for grafts of good varieties. Research on nutmeg is one of the mandates of the Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR), Calicut, ever since its inception in 1976. Germplasm collection and evaluation have resulted in the release of a high yielding accession A9/4 which was released as VISWASREE by the Kerala State Variety Release Committee in 2002. Ever since the report has been published through the news papers and other mass media, the demand for this variety from the farming community has been overwhelming and all efforts are being made at the institute made to fulfill the requirements.   Characters of Viswasree It is a clonal selection made in 1983 from Mannoor in Calicut District of Kerala. The parent tree was yielding about 10,000 fruits per annum. The mace and seed weights were ideal and the fruits were pear shaped. Grafts of this tree were grown at IISR Farm, Peruvannamuzhi and yields were recorded for eight years. Though the grafts were plagiotropic and spreading, it yielded on an average 1000 fruits in eighth year. It has vigorous growth with a compact canopy with heavy bearing and fruits appearing in clusters presenting an attractive look. Height of the plant at the 9th year was 3.5 m with a canopy width of 3.5 m. It has very low incidence of fruit rot and fruit shedding is negligible. The average fruit weight is 75 g, dry seed weight 9g and dry mace weight 1.33g per fruit. As an intercrop in coconut gardens, it can yield on an average 480 g of dry mace and 3122 kg dry seed per hectare at the 8th year of planting. Mace is dark red and seed is shining black and bold. The chemical composition is as follows. Nut Oil 7.14% Mace oil 7.13% Oleoresin in mace 13.8% Oleoresin in nut 2.48% Butter in nut 30.9% Myristicin in mace 20.3% Myristicin in nut 12.48% Elemicin in mace 13.65% Elemicin in nut 13.65% Since the source material of Viswasree for grafting was limited, grafts from high yielding elite lines with good yields were also prepared and sold to needy farmers to meet the huge demand for grafts. These lines are A9/20, A9/150, A9/69, A9/22, A9/25, A11/70, A4/12 etc.   Training of grafts as bush Branch dimorphism in nutmeg with orthography and plagiotropy are inherent features of shoots. For getting erect growing normal trees, orthotropic scions are essential where as plagioorthotropic scions grow laterally and spreading. There is serious handicap in large scale multiplication of elite tree grafts because the number of orthotropic shoots are limited and budding to save on the scion material has not been very successful. At the same time grafting by the epicotyl method using lateral grafts is highly successful to the tune of 95%. In order to overcome this problem, it is advised to train the plagiotropic grafts to a leader with side branches employing supports to a height of 3 or 4 m. These grafts have been found to bear fruits profusely by third or fourth year and yield. These grafts also grow dwarf making harvesting, maintenance etc. very easy. Since orthotropic grafts arise from the plagiotropic scions after a few years above graft union, such erect shoots can be trained to get normal trees and once these start bearing the original graft shoot can be removed. Many farmers have been convinced of this technique and they have accepted the plagiotropic grafts   Role of KVK For large scale multiplication of grafts at Peruvannamuzhi Farm, two unemployed youths were trained in nursery practices for spices and these youths are being employed to produce grafts on contract basis regularly. They are grafting Viswasree nutmeg and earns on an average Rs. 50,000/- per year. Funds from Integrated Programme for Development of Spices and Revolving Fund of KVK are being used for the purpose. The institute has established excellent credential with the public with respect to genuine grafts of nutmeg. The details of the grafts of nutmeg sold from the Institute to growers in different states from 1998 onwards are given in Table 1.   Table 1. Distribution of elite lines of nutmeg from IISR Farm since 1998. State Viswasree Elite lines Total Remarks Kerala 2701 16821 19522   Tamilnadu 1687 1737 3424   Karnataka 158 486 644   Goa 505 2548 3053   Haryana 10 0 10   Maharashtra 22 60 82   Orissa 2 0 2   Assam 28 128 156   Arunachal pradesh 44 90 134   Manipur 2 0 2   Meghalaya 6 0 6   Nagaland 2 0 2   West Bengal 29 125 154   Grand Total     27191