The shadow over the pineapple fields of Kottayam has finally begun to recede.
Hit hard by the countrywide lockdown, the pineapple farmers in the region now join hands with the Kottayam district administration and the Agriculture Department to sell large quantities of unsold harvest in the local market. The project envisages selling the crop in association with residents’ associations, apartments, small-scale industrial units, and voluntary organisations so as to get over the loss incurred by the fruit farmers this harvest season.
100 kg minimum
While the Agriculture Department is tasked to find buyers and coordinate sales, the farmers are required to bear the cost of harvesting and transportation this time. The condition is that the minimum order should be for 100 kg while payment should be made on delivery.
Usually, the harvesting in the pineapple fields is carried out by those purchasing the fruit directly from the farmers.
With the lockdown triggering transport bottlenecks, the farmers here are grappling with a problem of plenty. Unable to find buyers from major markets in north India, they initially decided to let hundreds of tonnes of the ripe produce to rot in the fields but for an intervention by the authorities.
The total pineapple production in Kottayam each season is estimated to be around 600 tonnes.
According to Salomi Thomas, Principal Agricultural Officer in Kottayam, the system will function on all days of the week without break. “Though we are not sure about selling the entire harvest through this opening, we hope to reach out to the maximum number of retail buyers,” she said.
