Pineapple cultivation in India

Why is in news? Happy to see Meghalaya’s Pineapples receiving the recognition they deserve both domestically and internationally: Prime Minister

Pineapple is one of the fruit which has been produced in India largely among North-Eastern and Southern state.

Production of Pineapple is largely accumulated in north eastern and southern Indian state because of Rain fed conditions.

India’s diverse climate ensures the availability of all varieties of fresh fruits & vegetables.

It ranks second in fruits and vegetable production in the world, after China.

As per National Horticulture Database (Second Advance Estimates) published by National Horticulture Board, during 2020-21, India produced 102.48 million metric tonnes of fruits and 200.45 million metric tonnes of vegetables.

The area under cultivation of fruits stood at 9.6 million hectares while vegetables were cultivated at 10.86 million hectares.

Climatic Conditions:

Pineapple is mostly grown at low elevations in areas with a temperature range of 15 to 30ºC.

Pineapple is tolerant to drought because of the special water storage cells.

They can be grown with a wide range of rainfall from 600-2500 mm/ annum, the optimum being 1000-1500 mm.

Pineapple can be grown in a wide range of soils, but does not tolerate water logging.

It can be grown as a pure crop on plantation scale or as an intercrop in coconut gardens.

Pineapple attains flowering at 10-12 months after planting and attains harvesting 15-18 months after planting, depending upon the variety, time of planting, type of planting material used.

Some important varieties include Kew, Amrutha, Mauritius, Jaldhup and Lakhat.

Top producers of pineapple:

Philippines, Costa Rica, and Brazil are the top three pineapple producers in the world, supplying the most significant percentage of the global pineapple output.

The Philippines is the largest producer, generating more than 2.7 million tons of pineapple, followed closely by Costa Rica with over 2.6 tons.

Though Assam has the largest area under pineapple, West Bengal is the largest producer.

Other states (including Assam and West Bengal) where pineapple is grown include Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka and Goa.

The other states where production of pineapple is on a small scale are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Meghalaya is known for growing pineapples in abundance. Pineapple variety found in this part of North East is the Kew variety. Kew variety is a late-maturing pineapple variety and is the leading commercial variety in India.

Vazhakulam is a village in Muvattupuzha Talukis in Ernakulam district in the Indian state of Kerala. This town is known as Pineapple City due to its large-scale production of pineapple in farms.

Queen Pineapple is the state fruit of the Tripura, which is among the largest producing state of Pineapple.

Queen pineapple is spiny, golden yellow in colour. It has a pleasant aroma that differs it from the other pineapples producing in the North-East region of India.