Ginger
Ginger is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems about one meter tall, bearing narrow leaf blades. The inflorescences bear flowers having pale yellow petals with purple edges, and arise directly from the rhizome on separate shoots.
Ginger is in the family Zingiberaceae, which also includes turmeric, cardamom, and galangal. Ginger originated in Maritime Southeast Asia and was likely domesticated first by the Austronesian peoples. It was transported with them throughout the Indo-Pacific during the Austronesian expansion, reaching as far as Hawaii. Ginger is one of the first spices to have been exported from Asia, arriving in Europe with the spice trade, and was used by ancient Greeks and Romans. The distantly related dicots in the genus Asarum are commonly called wild ginger because of their similar taste.
Ginger has been used in traditional medicine in China, India and Japan for centuries, and as a modern dietary supplement. Ginger may offer benefits over placebo for nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, but there is no good evidence that it helps with nausea during chemotherapy. It remains uncertain whether ginger is effective for treating any disease. In 2023, world production of ginger was 4.9 million tonnes, led by India with 45% of the total.
Etymology
The English origin of the word "ginger" is from the mid-14th century, from Old English gingifer, which derives in turn from the Medieval Latin gingiber, gingiber from the Greek ζιγγίβερις from the Prakrit , and from the Sanskrit. The Sanskrit word is thought to come from an ancient Dravidian word that also produced the Tamil and Malayalam term ; an alternative explanation is that the Sanskrit word comes from, meaning "horn", and, meaning "body", but that may be folk etymology. The word probably was readopted in Middle English from the Old French gingibre.Origin and distribution
Ginger originated from Maritime Southeast Asia. It is a true cultigen and does not exist in its wild state. The most ancient evidence of its domestication is among the Austronesian peoples where it was among several species of ginger cultivated and exploited since ancient times. They cultivated other gingers including turmeric, white turmeric, and bitter ginger. The rhizomes and the leaves were used to flavour food or eaten directly. The leaves were also used to weave mats. Aside from these uses, ginger had religious significance among Austronesians, being used in rituals for healing and for asking protection from spirits. It was also used in the blessing of Austronesian ships.Ginger was carried with them in their voyages as canoe plants during the Austronesian expansion, starting from around 5,000 BP. They introduced it to the Pacific Islands in prehistory, long before any contact with other civilizations. Reflexes of the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian word *laqia are found in Austronesian languages all the way to Hawaii. They also presumably introduced it to India along with other Southeast Asian food plants and Austronesian sailing technologies, during early contact by Austronesian sailors with the Dravidian-speaking peoples of Sri Lanka and South India at around 3,500 BP. It was also carried by Austronesian voyagers into Madagascar and the Comoros in the 1st millennium CE.
From India, it was carried by traders into the Middle East and the Mediterranean by around the 1st century CE. It was primarily grown in southern India and the Greater Sunda Islands during the spice trade, along with peppers, cloves, and numerous other spices.
History
The first written record of ginger comes from the Analects, written by the Disciples of Confucius in China during the Warring States period. In it, Confucius was said to eat ginger with every meal. In 406, the monk Faxian wrote that ginger was grown in pots and carried on Chinese ships to prevent scurvy. During the Song dynasty, ginger was being imported into China from southern countries.Ginger spice was introduced to the Mediterranean by the Arabs, and described by writers like Dioscorides and Pliny the Elder. In 150, Ptolemy noted that ginger was produced in Ceylon. Ginger—along with its relative, galangal—was imported into the Roman Empire as part of very expensive herbal remedies that only the wealthy could afford, e.g. for the kidneys. Aëtius of Amida describes both ginger and galangal as ingredients in his complex herbal prescriptions. Raw and preserved ginger were imported into Europe in increased quantity during the Middle Ages after European tastes shifted favorably towards its culinary properties; during this time, ginger was described in the official pharmacopeias of several countries. In 14th century England, a pound of ginger cost as much as a sheep.
Archaeological evidence of ginger in northwest Europe comes from the wreck of the Danish-Norwegian flagship, Gribshunden. The ship sank off the southern coast of Sweden in the summer of 1495 while conveying King Hans to a summit with the Swedish Council. Among the luxuries carried on the ship were ginger, cloves, saffron, and pepper.
The ginger plant was smuggled onto the Caribbean islands from Asia sometime in the 16th century, along with black pepper, cloves, and cinnamon, at the encouragement of the Spanish Crown, though only ginger thrived. It eventually displaced sugar to become the leading export crop on both Hispaniola and Puerto Rico by the end of the century, until the introduction of slave labour from Africa made sugar more economical to produce in the 17th century.
Horticulture
Ginger produces clusters of white and pink flower buds that bloom into yellow flowers. Because of its aesthetic appeal and the adaptation of the plant to warm climates, it is often used as landscaping around subtropical homes. It is a perennial reed-like plant with annual leafy stems, about a meter tall. Traditionally, the rhizome is gathered when the stalk withers; it is immediately scalded, or washed and scraped, to kill it and prevent sprouting. The fragrant perisperm of the Zingiberaceae is used as sweetmeats by Bantu, and also as a condiment and sialogogue.Production
In 2023, world production of raw ginger was 4.9 million tonnes, led by India with 45% of the total, and Nigeria and China as secondary producers.Production in India
Though it is grown in many areas across the globe, ginger is "among the earliest recorded spices to be cultivated and exported from southwest India". India holds the seventh position in ginger export worldwide, however is the "largest producer of ginger in the world". Regions in southwest and Northeast India are most suitable for ginger production due to their warm and humid climate, average rainfall and land space.Ginger has the ability to grow in a wide variety of land types and areas, however is best produced when grown in a warm, humid environment, at an elevation between, and in well-drained soils at least 30 cm deep. A period of low rainfall prior to growing and well-distributed rainfall during growing are also essential for the ginger to thrive well in the soil.
Ginger produced in India is most often farmed through homestead farming, with work adaptively shared by available family and community members.
Ginger farming
The size of the ginger rhizome is essential to the production of ginger. The larger the rhizome piece, the faster ginger will be produced and therefore the faster it will be sold onto the market. Prior to planting the seed rhizomes, farmers are required to treat the seeds to prevent pests, and rhizome rot and other seed-borne diseases. Various ways Indian farmers do seed treatment include dipping the seeds in cow dung emulsion, smoking the seeds before storage, and hot water treatment.Once the seeds are properly treated, the farmland in which they are to be planted must be thoroughly dug or ploughed by the farmer to break up the soil. After the soil is sufficiently ploughed, water channels are made apart to irrigate the crop.
The next step is planting the rhizome seed. In India, planting the irrigated ginger crop is usually done in the months between March and June as those months account for the beginning of the monsoon, or rainy season. Once the planting stage is done, farmers go on to mulch the crop to conserve moisture and check weed growth, as well as check surface run-off to conserve soil. Mulching is done by applying mulch to the plant beds directly after planting and again 45 and 90 days into growth. After mulching comes hilling, which is the stirring and breaking up of soil to check weed growth, break the firmness of the soil from rain, and conserve soil moisture. Farmers must ensure that their ginger crops are receiving supplemental irrigation if rainfall is low in their region. In India, farmers must irrigate their ginger crops every two weeks at the least between September and November to ensure maximum yield and high quality product.
The final farming stage for ginger is the harvesting stage. When the rhizome is planted for products such as vegetable, soda, and candy, harvesting should be done between four and five months of planting, whereas when the rhizome is planted for products such as dried ginger or ginger oil, harvesting must be done eight to ten months after planting.
Dry ginger is one of the most popular forms of ginger in commerce. Ginger rhizomes for dry ginger are harvested at full maturity. After soaking them in water, the outer skin is scraped off with a bamboo splinter or wooden knife by hand as it is too delicate a process to be done by machinery. The whole dried rhizomes are ground in the consuming centres. Fresh ginger does not need further processing after harvest, and it is harvested much younger.
Transportation and export of ginger
Ginger is sent through various stages to be transported to its final destination either domestically or internationally. The journey begins when farmers sell a portion of their produce to village traders who collect produce right at the farm gate. Once the produce is collected, it is transported to the closest assembly market where it is then taken to main regional or district level marketing centres. Farmers with a large yield of produce will directly take their produce to local or regional markets. Once the produce has "reached regional level markets, they are cleaned, graded, and packed in sacks of about 60 kg". They are then moved to terminal markets such as in New Delhi, Kochi, and Bombay.States from which ginger is exported follow the marketing channels of vegetable marketing in India, and the steps are similar to those when transported domestically. However, instead of reaching a terminal market after the regional forwarding centres, the produce will reach an export market and then be sent off by vehicle, plane or boat to reach its final international destination, where it will arrive at a local retail market and finally reach the consumer once purchased.
Dry ginger is most popularly traded between Asian countries through a unique distribution system involving a network of small retail outlets. Fresh and preserved ginger are often sold directly to supermarket chains, and in some countries fresh ginger is seen exclusively in small shops unique to certain ethnic communities. India frequently exports its ginger and other vegetable produce to nearby Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as "Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, the United States, Yemen Republic, the United Kingdom, and Netherlands".
Though India is the largest ginger producer in the world, it fails to play the role of a large exporter and only accounts for about 1.17% of total ginger exports. Ginger farming in India is a costly and risky business, as farmers do not gain much money from exports and "more than 65% of the total cost incurred is toward labor and seed material purchase". The farm owner may benefit given that there are no losses in production or price decreases, which is not easily avoidable. Production of dry ginger proves to have a higher benefit–cost ratio, as well as ginger cultivated in intercropping systems rather than as a pure crop.