With an annual output of 2.5 million tonnes, India enjoys a pre-eminent position in spices production in the world. It is also the largest consumer of spices with the domestic needs requiring more than 90% of spices produced. Although nearly 60 out of the recorded 107 spices are cultivated in India, only 16 are important viz., black pepper, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, large cardamom, clove, chillies, garlic, saffron, celery, cumin, coriander, fennel, fenugreek, ajwain and suwa. Among these, cumin, coriander, fennel, fenugreek, ajwain and suwa are classified as seed spices.

The seed spices are mainly cultivated in Rajasthan and Gujarat with a sizeable acreage in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.

According to Sree Kumar (2994), coriander is cultivated on 5.91 lac ha, cumin on 2.85 lac ha, fenugreek on 0.89 lac ha and funnel on 0.19 lac ha while their production in the country is 3.38, 1.24, 0.93 and 0.28 lac tonnes, respectively. Rajasthan is major producer of seed spices in the country with 50 percent of area and production of coriander, 60 percent that of cumin , 51 percent of fenugreek and 10 percent of fennel.

Recently there has been an increase in export of seed spices, the prominent among them begin cumin, coriander, funnel and fenugreek. India has to its credit 35-40 percent of the world export market share in cumin and coriander, 40-60 percent in funnel, 70-80 percent in fenugreek