Cumin | Cuminum cyminum

Cumin: Cuminum суminum

Family: Apiaceae

Also known as Zeera or Jeera,

• Its dried seeds are used in the cuisines of many different cultures, in both whole and ground form.
• Cumin seeds contain 2.5 to 4.0% volatile oil and aldehyde or cuminol which attributes for the aroma and special medicinal properties (Aiyer & Narayan 1950).
• Cumin seed is common ingredient of flavouring of zal-zira, a common drink during summer
• The main producer and consumer of cumin is India. It produces 70% of the world supply and consumes 90% of that (which means that India consumes 63% of the world's cumin).
• In India. Gujarat (first) and Rajasthan (second) are chief producer of cumin
• Soaking the seeds for 8 hours before sowing enhances germination.
• Seed rate: 12-15 kilograms per hectare
• Cumin seedlings are sensitive to salinity and emergence from heavy soils is rather difficult so well drained loamy soils with smoth seed bed good for germination
• Sowing method: broadcast and line sowing
• The recommended sowing depth is 1-2 cm
• Patil and Pillai (1983) observed that incident of cumin blight higher in crops sown in November than those sown in December-January
• Infestation was least when the crop was sown in second week of
• December. Important cultivar: RZ-19 (Rajasthan jeera-19), RZ-209, RS-1, GC-1(Gujarat cumin-1), GC-4 (new cultivar good for western Rajasthan and Gujarat)
• Other varieties are UC -89, UC-199, UC-208, UC -209, VC-11 and VC-24 under pre-release multi location trial. Zeeri (Plantago pumile) is an important weed in cumin fields
• having morphological similarity with cumin plant. As the weed is distinguishable only at the flowering stage, hand weeding is done only to avoid contamination of seeds. Management-Pendimethalin @ 1.0 kg/ha as pre emergence of crop or weeds.

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Diseases:

1. Wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cumini)

• The most important disease is Fusarium wilt, resulting in yield losses up to 80%.
• It is both soil- and seed-borne disease and survives as saprophyte
• Infected plants show peculiar symptoms of dropping leaves. leading to mortality of the entire plant
• Disease produces wilting symptoms at seedling and later stage of plant growth
• Management: seed treatment with bavistin @ 2g/kg of seed and spray bavistin 0.2%

2 Cumin blight (Alternaria burnsii)

• Appears in the form of dark brown spots on leaves and stems
• When the weather is cloudy after flowering, the incidence of the disease is increased
• Manamgement: spray mencozeb (M-45) @ 2g/litre of water

3 Powdery mildew (Erysiphe polygoni)

• Incidence of powdery mildew in early development can cause drastic yield losses because no seeds are formed. Later in development, powdery mildew causes discoloured, small seeds.
• Management: Crop should be dusted with Sulphur dust @25 kg/ha to control this disease as soon as the symptoms are noticed. Spraying of wettable Sulphur 0.25% or Dinocap (Karathan 0.05%) can also be used to control the disease

Insect pests:

1. Aphids: Cumin can be attacked by aphids (Myzus persicae) at the flowering stage. They suck the sap of the plant from tender parts and flowers. The plant becomes yellow, the seed formation is reduced (yield reduction), and the quality of the harvested product decreases.

2. Other important pests are the mites (Petrobia latens) which frequently attack the crop. Since the mites mostly feed on young leaves, the infestation is more severe on young inflorescences