How spices changed the ancient world

India’s history as a spice-producing nation is largely down to its climate, which is varied and ideal for growing a range of different spice crops. For example, turmeric, one increasingly valuable spice, grows well in India’s tropical, high-rainfall regions, whereas spices such as cumin flourish in cooler and drier subtropical areas. 

Many spice farms in India are historically small and family-run. But fluctuations in the value of spices on the open market can make farmers’ incomes more precarious. 

“Some of the biggest pressures on the industry are around climate change – more extreme weather patterns, flooding, hurricanes, droughts in different parts of the world,” says Anne Touboulic, a global food supply chain researcher at the Nottingham University Business School. “That will affect rural crop production, which would in turn have an effect on how much spice can be supplied, and then on prices.”

Many of the challenges for spice growers are shared by farmers of other crops. Overuse of nitrogen fertilisers, water shortages and the loss of pollinating insects. But combined with the high price of spice crops, these pressures on supply can have a knock-on effect. 

Outside India, one example of this is Madagascan vanilla. Natural vanilla is one of the most expensive spices in the world, with ripe, high-quality vanilla exceeding the price of silver to become worth more than $600 (£445) per kilo in the summer of 2018. A cyclone in 2017 in Madagascar, which produces the majority of the world’s vanilla, hit the vanilla crop hard and caused prices to surge. 

“The price of vanilla has risen because it is in high demand, and it is becoming a lot rarer because of extreme weather in Madagascar,” says Touboulic. “What that means is there are a lot of farmers going into vanilla to produce the bean and earn a living.”

But to grow the crop you need space, and the land to grow the vanilla has to come from somewhere. 

“There are beautiful forests in Madagascar, home to all sorts of interesting ecosystems,” says Touboulic. “You see them being cut down.” 

As well as being devastating for wildlife, including several endangered species, deforestation threatens future production of vanilla. The forests of Madagascar provide the right amount of rainfall, humidity and nutrients in the soil for the vanilla plants to grow. Disturbing Madagascar’s delicate ecosystem also disrupts the finely-balanced conditions needed for vanilla growing in the first place. 

“You can't blame the vanilla growers for doing it,” says Touboulic. “All they want to do is survive.”

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