"At present, many are shifting from pineapple cultivation as the demand is reducing and the market price is also reducing as pineapples are not going to Bangladesh. Many have even shifted to rubber cultivation but we are continuing with pineapple. If the government helps us then we hope the orchard will further develop with better production. Number of pineapple production is less as rainfall has decreased and after paying the laborers it is not very profitable," said Dulal Deb, a pineapple grower.
According to him, if farmers could arrange irrigation in their orchard, then they would not depend on nature for water and their production would be improved and more profitable, but it is impossible without the government's help.
Another orchard owner Rafik Mia said, "This year the production has been less compared to last year and the price is between Rs 12 to Rs 10... Along with pineapple I have also started rubber cultivation because it is profitable. I have started separate rubber cultivation but many others stopped pineapple and shifted to rubber".
In Tripura, pineapple is one of the major fruit crops in terms of area and as per the statistics the state produces around 45000 metric tons pineapples, out of which Kew is contributing lion shares in production followed by the Queen variety. Productivity of pineapple per hectare in Tripura is 18.73 tonnes, which is higher than the national average of 15.80 tonnes.
