Ginger (আদা)

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of leaves) 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.In 2018, global production of ginger was 2.8 million tonnes, led by India with 32% of the world total. China, Nigeria, and Nepal also had substantial production. Raw ginger is composed of 79% water, 18% carbohydrates, 2% protein, and 1% fat (table). In 100 grams (a standard amount used to compare with other foods), raw ginger supplies 80 Calories and contains moderate amounts of vitamin B6 (12% of the Daily Value, DV) and the dietary minerals, magnesium (12% DV) and manganese (11% DV), but otherwise is low in nutrient content (table). Ginger is also known by these names- ada, Adda, Adwa. When used as a spice powder in a common serving amount of one US tablespoon (5 grams), ground dried ginger (9% water) provides negligible content of essential nutrients, with the exception of manganese (70% DV).
The size of the ginger seed, called 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 seed-borne pathogens and pests, rhizome rot and other seed-borne diseases. There are various ways farmers do seed treatment in India. These include dipping the seeds in cow dung emulsion, smoking the seeds before storage, or hot water treatment.

Once the seeds are properly treated, the farm land 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 at least 3-5 times, water channels are made 60–80 ft apart to irrigate the crop.

The next step after farmers ensure soil is well suitable for planting and growing 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 and 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 (green leaves for example) 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 (when the monsoon is over) to ensure maximum yield and high quality product

The final farming stage for ginger is the harvesting stage and for items 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.