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| Pineapples from Meghalaya’s Garo hills at Dhubri ghat. Picture by Bijoy Kr Sarma |
Dhubri, June 17: Food items and raw material from Garo hills and Bhutan are enjoying a ready market in nine lower Assam districts in the absence of initiatives to locally grow and sell the products despite the favourable climate and soil.
Items from East and West Garo Hills such as bamboo, banana, coal, limestone, cashew nuts, ginger, black pepper are finding takers in the markets of Kamrup, Goalpara, Dhubri and Bongaigaon. The list does not end here, as a large number of seasonal vegetables and fruits, including pineapples, oranges and litchis, from Garo hills also reaches these markets in quintals.
On the other hand, Bhutan’s apples, oranges, maize, distilled water, timber, cement, spices, fruit juice, handloom items and garments, besides a huge quantity of vegetables and variety of citrates, are making their way to Nalbari, Barpeta, Baksa, Chirang and Kokrajhar. The districts also depend on hydroelectric power from the Himalayan country.
About 1,000 truckers from the lower Assam districts, mainly from Bongaigaon, Goalpara and Kamrup, operate daily to transport coal from various coalfields in the Garo hills districts to Jogighopa and another 100 truckers transport other produces to Assam and other parts of the country.
Several crores of rupees are involved in the trade with nearly three lakh traders engaged in the wholesale and retail markets in the lower Assam districts.
Among other major items from Garo hills districts that have fair markets in the lower Assam districts are bamboo, banana and cashew nuts, which, too, involve trade in crores of rupees.
To cite an example of the magnitude of trade of just bananas alone, 15,000 people — from growers to sellers — are involved in the market, which has a monthly turnover of Rs 3 crore during the peak season. Production of bananas in Assam-Meghalaya (Garo hills districts) in 2009-10 was 835 tonnes, with a productivity of 15.5 tonnes per hectare.
K.K. Jhunjhunwala, a trader from Meghalaya, said despite potential to locally grow the products, as the climate and the soil were favourable for such crops, the lower Assam districts had to depend on produces from the Garo hills. “In a conservative calculation, Assam procures various produces worth about Rs 1,400 crore from other parts of the country, including Meghalaya, despite tremendous potential and conducive climate and technical know-how to be self-reliant in various agro-horticulture fields,” he said.
According to sources in Bhutan, 74 per cent of the country’s total land is covered with trees. Nearly 30,000 cubic metres of trees are felled for commercial logging and an additional about 25,000 cubic metres for housing construction and public works.
“The gross sales of Bhutan board products in 2011 were nearly Nu 400 million and lion’s share of this was traded with India (Assam and Bengal),” a source said.
The Himalayan kingdom produces an average 100,000 tonnes of oranges annually, and currently exports almost half of it to Bangladesh. India (Bengal and Assam) gets a share of 40,000 tonnes, while the remaining 10,000 tonnes are for its domestic market.
Debobrata Choudhury, a young trade analyst working as a representative of a national company in lower Assam, said Samdrup Jongkhar, Gelephu (also known as Gelyephug), Bengtol, Garompani, Runikhata and Dadgiri were some of the major trading markets of Bhutan and Indian produces, located along the 267km Indo-Bhutan border with Assam.
“These markets have grown over the years owing to mutual trading facilities offered by Bhutan and India. Produces of both countries are traded freely. It has been possible only because both Bhutan and Indian governments have shown keen interest in trading produces and cultural exchange,” Choudhury said.
He said beside many other produces, mousumbi (a variety of citrate) and handloom items of Bhutan are in great demand in the lower Assam districts now.
Those in the know, in regard to bamboo, banana, ginger, citrate, orange, spices and cashew nuts, among others, said there was huge potential but lack of initiatives on Dispur’s part had negated this.