Easing of lockdown rules proves beneficial for Kerala’s pineapple growers

Kerala’s pineapple growers heaved a sigh of relief following the exemptions supplied to all farm-linked do the job from the lockdown regulations.

The nod supplied by the authorities has enabled pineapple growers to start out harvesting on a minimal scale, all-around 200 tonnes for each day, reported Toddler John of the Pineapple Growers Affiliation, Kerala. “We have received orders to dispatch 10 tonnes to Kozhikode, but minimal availability of vehicles is posing a problem”, he reported, including that there are also enquiries from Tamil Nadu and Bengaluru following the easing of limitations in cargo motion.

The shortage of fruit has pushed up the prices of the fruit to ₹60 for each kg in numerous retail marketplaces from the farm gate value of ₹10-15 for the GI tagged Vazhakulam pineapple. The easing of lockdown regulations is a excellent relief to pineapple growers as it would assistance them to have interaction their workforce, specifically migrant labourers, in the present natural environment where by there is no do the job, he additional.

Toddler John acknowledged the role BusinessLine has played in highlighting the plight of pineapple growers. The farmers have sought relief along the strains of what was extended to tomato farmers in Madhya Pradesh for harvesting their inventory. The pineapple growers had pointed out that all-around 5,000 tonnes is now completely ready for harvest on all-around 45,000 acres and about one,000 tonnes have by now rotted due to the lockdown.

Meanwhile, the Kerala Agricultural College has formulated an enhanced unit brush cutter pineapple harvester with a fruit holding attachment. Typically, pineapple harvesting was carried out manually, with a distinctive knife. It is a monotonous and labour-intense exercise. The sharp thorny leaves make harvesting exceptionally cumbersome, as hand entry to the fruit is difficult. In some locations, the adjoining leaves, which cover the stem of the fruit, want to be pruned as a pre-harvest procedure to make harvesting uncomplicated.

To conquer this sort of challenges, an enhanced unit has been released and the regular time of harvesting 10 fruits is four minutes. The efficiency of the newly formulated unit was discovered superior than other pineapple harvesting machines beforehand formulated, reported P Shaji James, Professor, Agriculture Exploration Station, KAU.