With pineapple jaggery, farmer couple turns adversities of Covid lockdown to their advantage

This farmer couple turned adversities of the Covid-induced lockdown to their advantage.

They have created jaggery from pineapple juice, moving away from sugarcane juice, the conventional raw material. They had earlier prepared jam out of this fruit.

Progressive farmer-turned-entrepreneur Nagendra Sagar from Chippali village in Sagar taluk of Shivamogga district and his wife Vanishri have also prepared sweets like holige, burfi, laddu, halwa, tambittu and todedevu with the semi-liquid jaggery.

These have already become a hit among friends and villagers. According to the couple, the shelf life of the semi-liquid jaggery is six months. The couple are sharing the jaggery recipe with pineapple growers and villagers so that they can earn revenue from the product.

Unripened fruits from the district find their way to the shops in Delhi, giving another revenue option for the growers.

Nagendra Sagar told DH that he is basically not a cultivator of pineapple.

However, he wants to create a revenue-generation model for around 56,000 metric tonne of pineapple (raja variety) grown on 1,400 hectares of land in Sagar and Sorab taluks of the district.

The cultivators suffered huge losses during the lockdown last year as there was no demand from juice outlets and fruit-based industries in North India.

Explaining the preparation, Vanishri Sagar said initially, ripened fruit has to be cut into slices and sugar should be added to them. They have to be kept in a vessel for one day without adding water.

The next day, the juice has to be boiled at a particular temperature for several hours.

The juice then turns into semi-liquid jaggery, which can be used to prepare any sweet dish. The slices have to be placed in a dehydrator and the dry fruit has a huge demand in the market, Vanishri said.

The Soans brothers, L C Soans and Irwin Soans from Moodbidri in Dakshina Kannada district, said dried pineapple and jam prepared by them are being sold in the district now. They said wine and vinegar can also be prepared from pineapple.

Pineapple cultivator Abdul Kareem from Banavasi in Uttara Kannada district told DH the fruit can be used in making fruits cocktail.