Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology

Growers of vanilla in Mexico have started to organize themselves in national and state associations in accordance with legal and judicial frameworks in order to obtain economic resources from the government. Growers have also sought out from the government technical assistance, help with establishing their own curing facilities and organizations (in which growers receive a better price by selling a value-added product), and in linking directly to external markets. In other words, growers have been trying to break the traditional commercialization scheme. As part of this initiative, some growers have also been promoting shade-house cultivation, subsidized by the government, that they hope will produce higher yields because of the high density of plantings and increased overseeing and technology.

A typical feature of vanilla growers in Mexico is that personal investment in time and resources directly correlates with good prices for vanilla. When prices fall, growers decrease their own investments, to the extent of abandoning vanilla cultivation altogether, as is happening currently. This is the main factor that explains why the volume of Mexican vanilla production has been so low for the last 50 years. The interest to cultivate vanilla in Mexico among growers is strong, but the price factor and fluctuations in international demand are the prime determinants for the increase or decrease in Mexican vanilla production.

Few scientific/technical studies in Mexico have addressed how vanilla cultivation can improve, mainly because of a lack of government funds since vanilla does not represent a crop of major socio-economic or political importance in Mexico. There remain few institutions that conduct vanilla research, most of which are thesis projects by university students.

Only the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agricolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP) has two full-time vanilla researchers who have contributed fundamentally to the technological improvement of vanilla cultivation, and to capacity-building, via work-shops and courses for growers. The majority of the applied knowledge in vanilla cultivation is the product of cumulative experience of growers, from generations of transmitting knowledge from fathers to sons.

INIFAP and other institutions have made commitments to establish a germplasm repository and to identify cultivated material, but the lack of funding has made it difficult to realize such advances.

REFERENCES

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Arcos, C.G., Jimenez, H.R. and Perez, A.V. (1991) Dinamica poblacional y ciclo biolcigico de Tenthecoris confusus Hsiao and Sailer en vainilla. 4A Reunion anual del INIFAPen el estado de Veracruz (resultados y avances de investigaewn). Resumen de trabajo.

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Bruman, H. (1948) The culture history of Mexican vanilla. The Hispanic American Historical Review, 28, 360-376.

Chauds, P. (1970) Les Derniers resultats obtenus par la recherche agronomique dans la culture du vanillier (a la Reunion). Plantes a espices, 25, 101-112.

Chaavez-Hita, A. and Gonzaalez-Sierra, J. (1990) Papantla Veracruz: Imaagenes de su historia. Archivo General del estado de Veracruz ISBN-968-6171-32-0. Litografica Turmex. S.A. de C.V. Mexico, D.F. Curti-Diaz, E. (1995) Cultivo y beneficiado de la vainilla en Maexico. Folleto taecnico para productores.

Organization Nacional de Vainilleros Indigenas. Papantla, Veracruz.

Galicia, R., Garcia, M. and Curti-Diaz. E. (1989) Anteproyecto de norma oficial mexicana - Especias y Codimentos - Vanilla fragans (Salisbury) Ames o Vanilla planifolia (Andrews) Entera en estado seco. Comision Nacional de Fruticultura. Memorias, Primera Semana Nacional de la Vainilla. pp. 93-112. Hagsater, E., Soto-Arenas, M.A., Salazar-Chavez, G.A., Jimenez-Machorro, R., L6pez-Rosas, M.A. and Dressler, R.L. (2005) Las orquadeas de Maexico: Orquadeas y gente. Instituto Chinoin, Maexico D.F. pp. 38-71.

Hartman, T.G. (2003) Composition of vanilla beans from different geographical regions. Presentation in Vanilla: First International Congress, Princeton, NJ, November 11-12.