Areca nut production in India is dominant in the coastal region within 400 kilometres (250 mi) from the coast line, and also in some other non-coastal states of India. Areca nut (Areca catechu), a tropical crop, is popularly known as betel nut, as its common usage in the country is for mastication with betel leaves. It is a palm tree species under the family of Arecaceae

Fully ripe nuts are harvested ( more than 9 months stage of maturity depending on the agro climatic conditions ) from November to February and are sudried for about 40 to 45 days. Dried arecanuts are dehusked . Proper drying of the nuts is important to prevent fungal infection of the nuts in the drying yard.

This is the top to bottom approach where we remove all second class areca nuts first and finally only Kottapak(koka) nuts remains .

Steps

1. Very first step is to identify the Kannottu , areca which has a hole at the top . This is usually caused or seen in the nuts which was left behind at the farm when it was ripe and water contents are gone inside to these nuts . This is very easy to identify and can be easily distinguished. If we mix this with good quality areca , it has a very bad effect and it might cause desease called dunki to the nuts.

2. Second step is to separate Sippegotu(or also called ulligadde). This is also can be easily identified and usually nuts which are not properly dehusked or nuts with remained husks comes under this category .

3. Third step is to remove Karigotu. These are immature areca nuts and not properly developped ones.

4. Fourth step is to remove Patoras. These are nuts which are slightly broken and has some holes on it . These can be further classified into Patora 1st and Patora 2nd based on the amount of damage it has on it .

5. All the remaining nuts from the lots can be considered as supari or the superior quality nuts . We can repeat these steps in order to reduce the bad quality nuts going into lots .

Properly segregated areca nuts can be stored upto 2 years without any problem . It is advisable that after dehusking areca can be sundried again for upto two hours so that it becomes easier to segregate. Then we can store this inside plastic container gunny bag(Goni cheela in kannada)and keep it open for a day and then can be properly packed and stored inside store room

Conclusion

This is small effort to give introduction for beginners. However these steps might vary depending on the years of experience person has on the field and based on other factors . But however this should give one good start to begin with . Let us know your method or improvements to this article.