There can be no food more organic than what is homegrown. Following the same path, the people of Tripura are cultivating strawberries organically on a large scale. Going green and growing healthy go well together and thus everyone loves their food to be organic. This article will provide an insight into the lives of people of Tripura and how they earn from their organic strawberry garden.
The state has many people like Sukuram Debbarma who engage themselves in cultivating strawberries, rather than working a full-time job elsewhere. He sells his plants in the market for ₹200 each. According to him, this is a way for him to make a decent livelihood. If he sells 110 such plants, he can easily make around ₹2,2000.
Strawberry cultivation requires a lot of vigilance, hard work and patience. Apart from water, humus is an important requirement as it nourishes the soil with nutrients and improves the health of the soil in general. The strawberry plants are strongly affected by temperature and light intensity. Thus, the plants require neither bright sunshine nor continuous shade.
Each strawberry plant can be used to produce multiple strawberry plants. Such plants require even more care- from plucking out the weeds from the soil to regularly watering the plants. They develop flowers in them in the month of January and soon turn into strawberry fruits. It is said that one strawberry plant easily produces 40-50 strawberries. Ripened strawberries take about 20-25 days to develop colour and flavour.
Engaging in such plantations does not require a lot of effort as compared to full-fledged agriculture. People of Tripura encourage strawberry farming as it is economical, organic and most importantly its business brings them profit.
About the author: Khumtia Debbarma is a resident of the Sepahijala district of Tripura. She has completed her graduation and wants to become a social worker. She spends her free time singing, dancing, travelling and learning how to edit videos.