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. 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.
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.
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)