Vazhakulam farmers keep fingers crossed on MD2 pineapple variety trial results

Kerala pineapple farmers test MD2 variety for potential business transformation, facing challenges with planting materials and costs.

Farmers in Kerala’s pineapple heartland in Vazhakulam and neighbouring areas are keeping fingers crossed over the result of trials with the MD2 variety of pineapple, which, if successful, they feel, can change the way pineapple business takes place now.

“The MD2 variety is more amenable to processing and has better shelf life. Besides, more MD2 pineapple plants can be accommodated on an acre of land than the conventional Mauritius variety,” said Jobin K. Joy in Koothattukulam.

He said that he had planted a total of around 30,000 MD2 variety plants of which around 13,000 were doing well from the first batch of around 20,000.

Baby John, a veteran farmer, said that the key difficulty for the farmers was the availability of planting materials. He said that most of the planting materials were now brought from outside Kerala.

Sources at the Pineapple Research Station in Vazhakkulam said that the facility for producing tissue culture planting material was limited at the station and there was not enough space to try out the developed suckers. “Only expansion of the facilities can go some way in meeting the planting needs,” they added.

Mr. Jobin Joy said that tissue culture planting material cost ₹40 per piece, which the farmers said was unaffordable. Mr. Baby John also said that the farmers were not in a position to afford the high cost of tissue culture pineapple plants.

Mr. Jobin Joy said that if successful with their trials, the pineapple farmers would be able to plant around 25,000 plants of MD2 variety on an acre in place of the 12,000 to 13,000 of the Mauritius variety. This would be a major advantage, he added. He also said that a protocol had to be developed for MD2 as there was no protocol now as farmers had been planting mostly the Mauratius variety till now.