After pineapple it’s lemon time !

Make no mistake; if the will is strong enough, success is just a matter of time. The story of lemon cultivators of Kamalpur advocates the same. Once started in 1 or 2 kanis of land, each of the lemon farmers now posses at least 8 to 9 kanis of cropland full of high-yielding lemons that even included the Indian land beyond international fencing.

Tripuraindia.com travelled to the bordering villages of Kamalpur—Bilascherra Gram panchayat and adjacent areas including Rangicherra, Kathalbari, Bagachari etc. where farmers are quite expectant of getting a chance of exporting their scented lemon in the international markets.

Recently, Tripura Government had sent a consignment of lemon with pineapple to the Middle East countries, which assumed wide appreciation. Reportedly, the consignment had 1,50,000 scented lemons—a specialty of this part of the land.

Agriculture officer Kajal Singha said that the farmers of this area had established themselves through lemon cultivation. “The way they have made it through deserves applause. Each of the farmer started lemon with small lands long ago - 1994-95 as shared crops and gradually shifted their whole concentration to lemon. Right now, all the 625 farmers enlisted in the agriculture department with lemon cultivation have more than 8 to 9 kanis of cropland which produce high yielding lemon every year” Kajal said.

The large scale lemon cultivation got momentum in the year 2004-05, when lemon cultivators started incurring good value of their products. The Agartala based wholesalers use to travel to this villages and procure the products. Lemons of Kamalpur also go out of state—in states like Assam.

“From 2004-05, the farmers worked for lemon in a concentrated way. The plantation was also extended in the no-men’s land area beyond the fencing that falls under the Indian Territory. Lemon and pineapple have been planted in extensively along the borders—about a stretch of 3 kilometers” Kajal told this reporter.

The farmers also seemed pleased with the approach of the government to export their produced in international markets. One Elashing Devbarma of the village, one of the notable figures among the lemon farmers, aptly put his views while speaking to Tripuraindia.com.

“We are ready to export more if exporters are ready to take. The production in this year is more than satisfactory and Kamalpur is known for taste” said Elashing while escorting this reporter to his cropland.

He also revealed that altogether 22 daily wagers work in his field every day and he could sell lemons worth Rs 30 to 40 lakh per annum. “This crop (lemon) has brought everything to me. Every year, lemons worth Rs 30 to 40 Lakh has been sold from my gardens and I am very much satisfied with my produces,” he added saying that no major crop-disease has been observed till date in the region.

Notably, the major types of lemon produced here include—Assam lemon, Scented lemon, Elachi (local name) lemon and Kagaji (local name) lemon.