Pineapples ready for sale

Silchar, Aug. 30: The fruits of labour are not always sweet.

The region’s sweetest pineapples may be grown on the hill slopes along the Assam-Manipur border in Cachar district, but the taste of the succulent fruit has not removed the bitterness in the lives of those who produce it.

The Hmar Christian pineapple growers of Hmarkhawlien village are fleeced by middlemen and fruit traders, who buy the fruit for Rs 3 each and sell it for Rs 8-10.

Acknowledged as the sweetest of all the species available in the Northeast — its sugar content is 18 per cent — the Hmarkhawlien pineapple is popular across the region.

Ngursunthang, who is the chairman of the Barak Valley Hill Tribals Development Council and a pineapple farmer himself, says “market manipulation” had reduced growers to “paupers”.

Worse still, the 600-odd Hmar farmers who grow pineapples in Hmarkhawlien are being exploited by moneylenders. At the beginning of each farming season — June and October — the farmers borrow money at an annual interest rate of 50 per cent. “The combined effect of price manipulation and debt has bled the growers dry,” says Joseph R. Hmar, a former president of the Hmar Students’ Association.

The bad times began with the pineapple processing plant at Hmarkhawlien closing shop in the mid-90s. Started by the Fulertal Agriculture Cooperative Society, the venture folded up because of mismanagement.

The Cachar District Regulated Market Committee did try to ensure better returns for the farmers, but failed to crack the nexus between middlemen and traders.

Ochunga Pudaite, a Hmar pastor who graduated in theology from Fort Illinois University in the US, believes the farming community must unite to change the situation. “Unless the Hmars unite and demand better prices for their produce, they will continue to grovel in darkness.”

Pineapple orchards at Hmarkhawlien span 1,800 acres. The first such orchard came up in 1920, thanks to the efforts of a Christian missionary named H.K. Dohnuna. Hmar-khawlien now produces over 10 million pineapples annually.