Pineapple Fields Forever...

EDUCATED, unemployed and under the reign of a succession of ineffectual governments? Well, you can either try a Full Monty, or take the pineapple route to success. As did the people of Vazhakulam in Kerala's Ernakulam district. With little or no help from successive governments—both left-wing and rightwing—which failed to keep their pledge of creating jobs, nor from banks, which have proved wary of giving loans, Vazhakulam's denizens have broken away from the swelling ranks of the unemployed to create a flourishing pineapple empire out of an economic wilderness.

A hamlet nestling on the fringes of the state's rubber belt, Vazhakulam, 10 years back, had worn a forlorn look. Productivity was low and jobs scarce. Most residents worked as wage labourers on the rubber estates of big land-owners from the neighbouring districts. Today, Vazhakulam displays unmistakable signs of prosperity: shops have multiplied, markets are busy and revenue is flowing in.

The reason is easy to sniff out. Any visitor to the place is greeted by a distinct aroma. And soon, row after row of low-lying plants, dwarfed by the rubber trees in the vicinity, bursts into view. These are the pineapple fields which has saved an entire population from the rigours of a sagging economy.

Almost the whole of Vazhakulam is into the new cash crop. And the pineapple economy has spawned a generation of yuppies with an obvious appetite for consumer durables. Most of the small-time farmers are youngsters below 35, who whiz past on Suzukis towards the pineapple fields. On a larger scale, vast acres of leased land planted with pineapple are harvested by traders and transported on trucks to Mumbai and other markets across the country. Pineapple farmers are compulsive buyers of Maruti cars, video sets and IMFL liquor—the local bars do brisk business. Surprisingly, the crime rate in the prospering area is relatively low.

The consumer boom is bad news for the local banks. "They don't have a saving mentality," laments V. Mohandas, manager, South Indian Bank. Loss of faith is another reason. Farmers are sore at the banks for not readily disbursing loans for cultivation. Bank managers, on their part, are wary of lending money to farmers because most of the pineapple cultivation takes place on leased land that can't be treated as collateral. So, farmers turn to private financiers, who charge exorbitant rates of interest. As a result, proceeds from pineapple farms go into servicing loans and buying consumer durables.

Yet, the mood is upbeat in Vazhakulam. Pineapples fetch a ready market, with Mumbai receiving 75 per cent of the total production. And on a normal day, 30 truckloads of pineapple, each weighing 9 tonnes, roll out of Vazhakulam and towards Mumbai. Traders buy the fruit from local growers at Rs 8.50 per kilo and offload it in Mumbai at over twice the rate. Demand peaks during Ramzan, when up to 35 lorryloads wind their way each day to the country's largest commercial metropolis. A fraction of the produce is exported to overseas markets like Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Male. The rest reaches domestic markets in Coimbatore, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Indore, Delhi and Calcutta.

THE prickly plant has come a long way from its traditional use as a fencing crop that, thanks to its sharp spines, helped keep intruders out. It first became commercially viable in 1985, with the introduction of a controversial growth hormone—ethepone. This ensured a steady crop throughout the year, but generated much controversy about potential health hazards. Experts at the local pineapple research station run by the agricultural university are concerned about the unscientific farming methods used. Says Prof K.P. Kuriakose, scientist at the station: "The farmers are prone to use chemical rather than organic manure, which is bad for the soil." Environmentalists too warn that unscientific pineapple cultivation could wreak long-term havoc on the local ecology.

 Farmers disagree. They say no pesticides are used and insist that the ethepone doses are marginal with no residual effects on the fruit. Thanks to ethepone, Vazhakulam has made the transition from poverty to prosperity, and its residents are in no mood to yield to the cautionary voice of science. The proceeds apparently outweigh the risks.

Pineapple's commercial viability has filled the vacuum caused by crashing rubber prices—several rubber plantations are now leased out for pineapple farming. The total area under pineapple has crossed 4,000 hectares, with the highest concentration in Kottayam district. However, 90 per cent of pineapple farmers come from Vazhakulam. Here the average production per hectare is eight tonnes, which gives a farmer and his family an annual revenue of Rs 50,000 per hectare. And if the going is good, the profits soar much higher.

Clearly, the economic imperative dominates. Pineapple cultivation is an option that unemployed youth won't readily pass up, despite high initial overheads. It costs Rs 40,000 to raise an acre of pineapple in the first year, which drops to Rs 10,000 for maintenance and fertilisers for the rest of the three-year period. And bank loans, even when available, aren't released on time. "We need the money within the first four months of cultivation, when 80 per cent of the cost must be met. Loans take two years to come through," complains O.M. George, a pineapple farmer.

Then there are the vagaries of the marketplace. If there is a glut, prices fall. Says P.P. Thomas, a trader: "Last year, production went up and we sold at Rs 4 per kilo. This year, there was a mango shortage, so pineapple prices shot up." Thomas, who operates his business from Mumbai, says the pineapple market is so fickle that even politics can destabilise prices. "The price crashed to Rs 2 per kilo during the Mumbai riots. It was the worst loss in years. For us to break even, the price must not fall below Rs 5 per kilo."

 Small-time growers tend to lose out to traders and middlemen who buy their produce and market them outside the state. Says bank manager Mohandas: "The middlemen make more than the growers. The economic boom in Vazhakulam reflects the disproportionate prosperity of the middlemen in the pineapple trade." To offset this, growers formed the Pineapple Marketing and Processing Co-operative Society for Muvattupuzha, set up to find avenues for farmers to market their produce without middlemen. They identify processing as a thrust area. Explains O.M. George: "Pineapples are difficult to store as they don't keep like mangoes. If turned into powder, it has a longer shelf-life." And so, modernisation is now to enter the industry with a processing unit set up with foreign collaboration.

However, the farmers may first need to review their cultivation practices. Efforts are on to wean them out of the use of soil-degrading chemical manure and to open them up to a new hybrid pineapple—at present, farmers swear by the Mauritius species, preferred for its symmetrical dimensions which make for even slices—that combines the virtues of the table fruit with those of the pulp-rich factory variety.

For, the humble pineapple currently enjoys a buoyancy in the market that makes it a more viable option than rubber. That's a place in the Kerala sun that's made Vazhakulam's rustic pineapple growers the envy of the once mighty rubber barons.