How Indo-Bangla border led to fall in pineapple cultivation in Tripura

Agartala: The erection of barbed wire fencing in Tripura along the 865-km-long border with Bangladesh has enhanced security, but has led to the decline of age-old pineapple cultivation in the state.

The fencing has robbed the state’s thriving pineapple cultivation of its predominant market - Bangladesh.

Tripura is one of the leading pineapple-growing states in the Northeast with the total production estimated at around 117531 MT during 2010-11.

A pineapple trader said, “When the border was open, we used to sell pineapples in Bangladesh which gave us good returns. But after the fencing came up, unofficial trade was stopped.”

This fact was corroborated by the superintendent of the Horticulture Department in Sonamura sub-division, where the fruit is grown in plenty, Bimal Das.

In desperation, many pineapple growers have switched to rubber cultivation, which, they claimed, is paying them good dividends.

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Wakhiram Tripura, a pineapple cultivator at Jumerdepha village in Sipahijala district, now grows rubber in his pineapple orchard and says it fetches more money than pineapples did.

The picturesque village on the hillocks, surrounded by forests, was once famous for the production of the world famous ‘Queen’ variety of pineapple, and is now slowly turning into a rubber growing region.

Wakhiram produces rubber in one hectare of land which brings him about Rs 30,000 per month, which is three times the money earned through selling pineapples.

“It is difficult for me to run my family with the money earned from pineapple sale, whereas rubber gives us the wherewithal for a decent living,” Wakhiram said.

Hundreds of pineapple growers have followed the example of Wakhiram, threatening their age-old occupation. Concerned over the development, the Tripura government has stepped in and is taking various initiatives to reverse

the trend, aware of the tremendous potential of a robust pineapple-based economy in Tripura.

The initiatives include infrastructure development like creation of Tripura Food Park, introduction of investment-friendly schemes, investment in land customs stations, laboratory for testing food products, cold storage chains and training programmes for staggered pineapple cultivation to make it available round the year.

“It is much needed for creating an environment conducive enough for a steady growth of the food processing sector which includes pineapple,” the chairman of Tripura Industrial Development Corporation, Pabitra Kar, said.

Government officials admitted that no proper fruit processing unit was working in the state.

“Though the North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited was incorporated in 1982 with the North Eastern Council as the promoter, they are not effective enough to support pineapple growers,” he said.

In order to give a fillip to the food processing industry, the central government has put stress on creating mega food parks, retail outlets, cold storage chains across the country, a CII executive here said.

Those along with the efforts by the governments of India and Bangladesh to open several border markets or ‘hat’ have put a smile back on pineapple cultivators’ faces as they would be able to sell their produce to an established consumer base.

However, not to discourage rubber cultivation, the Tripura government is at the same time aiming at increasing the area coverage of rubber cultivation from the present 55,000 hectares to one lakh hectares.

PTI