Farmers’ representatives, marketing and agricultural experts will speak at a convention in Mannuthy on Monday on ‘safe cultivation of pineapple’ amid mounting concerns that increasing local resistance has substantially reduced acreage under pineapple cultivation in the State over the last few years.
The aim of the farmers’ meet, scheduled to be inaugurated by Agriculture Minister K. P. Mohanan, is to create awareness among farmers about the safe use of fungicides and pesticides as well as to dispel wrong notions among the public about them, said a senior official in the Department of Agriculture on Sunday.
The meeting is sponsored by Kerala Pineapple Mission and backed by Kerala Agricultural University and Department of Agriculture.
Resistance to pineapple cultivation has grown in some of its traditional areas in Ernakulam, Kottayam and Idukki districts. But these actions were largely due to misconceptions, said the Department official.
He pointed out a widespread notion among people that the hormone used in pineapple plantations for flower induction is used to fatten fruits or increase yield just as hormones are allegedly deployed in poultry farms. The idea among the public was completely off the mark, he said.
Similarly, the use of weedicides and pesticides in pineapple plantations too had given rise to lot of allegations against the farmers, who mostly resort to leasing land for large-scale cultivation. Most of the pineapple cultivation is as intercrop with rubber.
Resistance to pineapple cultivation had forced farmers to abandon their leased lands at several locations, said the official. He said acreage under pineapple had come down from 12,000 to 13,000 hectares in the State to about 9,000 hectares now.
There are about 700 registered members in one of the pineapple farmers’ associations based in Vazhakkulam. There are hundreds of others in other associations. Kerala produces about 82,000 tonnes of the fruit annually with a productivity of 9.22 tonnes per hectare.
