Bindusmita Bhowmik
Bijay Gope – a youth of Tripura- is enjoying sweet nectar of success by cultivating strawberries.
A resident of Ajgartila in Khowai district, Bijay Gope completed an MA in History and joined a private company.
However, Gope’s first choice was farming. So he quit his job and started farming in 2016.
Like other ventures, Bijay had to face a lot of challenges and obstacles in the initial years. However, he continued and ultimately he started getting dividends.
This year, for the first time, he started earning sustainable profit by cultivating strawberries.
At first he cultivated strawberries in 1 katha of land. After harvesting, he has already sold strawberries worth about Rs 18,000, hoping to sell another Rs 20,000 from this land.
“I am selling strawberries at Rs 800 – 1000 per kg.”, Gope said.
He said he had brought tissue cultured strawberry saplings from Pune last year and planted them in October.
In all, there are about 600 trees in his farm land. He said fruits collection started from the beginning of December.
“I am collecting 5 to 6 kg fruits on a single day and selling those in markets. Already I have sold around 24 kg of strawberries of my farmland.
He worked hard in his farm land as well as expanded his reach in different markets under Khowai.
He took advantages of digitalization to sell his produces. Gope posted pictures of his garden on social media with necessary details and interested buyers are approaching him after seeing those pictures and posts.
“People from Khowai, Kalyanpur, Teliamura etc. are buying these strawberries”, Gope said.
Another feature of his farming is that the strawberries were cultivated in organic method – this is also making people interested in buying the fruits from me, he asserted.
Fruits can be obtained from the trees regularly till the month of March. After that, if the tree is given extra care and provided shades during harsh summer and rainy season, it will bear fruit for some more time.
“Harvesting can be done till March – this does not mean that I will have no more earning during rest of the year”, Gope said.
In addition to selling fruit, he will sell at least 1,000 saplings – this will generate earnings for me.
Behind his hardship and success, the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department of Tripura played a role.
Gope acknowledged the role and said he received financial assistance of Rs 12,000 from the Department for strawberry cultivation.
