Ulfa rebels drop guns for papaya farming in Assam

Guwahati: The boys who were trained for an armed struggle once in the killing fields of Assam are now turning landscapes of the state into a fruitful venture.

The wonder fruit papaya is at the centre of an agrarian revolution that has helped former Ulfa rebels drop their guns and take up cultivation in western Assam’s Goalpara district.

Leading the tribe of “farmers” is the young rebel Karna Roy with two of his fellow comrades - Pramathesh Roy and Basudev Basumat. Dudhnoi, about 115 km west of Guwahati, is the scene of the revolution which has yielded good results in organic papaya cultivation in the past one year since the 29-year-old launched the venture on a 15-bigha plot.

They introduced “Red Lady”, a high-yielding variety of papaya on a five-bigha plot of farmland where they planted around 1,000 saplings in April last. And significantly, all have been done without the help of chemical fertilizer. Boiled neem water has been used instead as pesticide, besides cowdung and compost manure.

It is significant that papaya is a tropical fruit having commercial importance because of its high medicinal and nutritive value and “Red Lady” is a hybrid dwarf variety. According to the group’s members, it took four months to bear fruit, while plucking was done after six months. At present, the farm produces around a quintal of ripe papaya daily and the average production of crop per plant is around 40 to 60 kg.

Mr Roy, who leads the group, said that it was not an easy task for them, as despite lacking knowledge in agriculture, they began cultivating papayas.

He said they are expecting assured returns and remunerative price for their produce, which is 100 per cent organic. But they are finding it difficult to find buyers to sell around one quintal of papaya daily.

He regretted that despite the government having numerous agricultural institutions for helping farmers to transport their produce from the farmland to the markets, not a single institute has come forward to provide them the marketing linkages.

He added that no government department has helped them even though he is elated that many people have started visiting their farm, as they have been able to convert a patch of barren land into a biodiversity farm.

Mr Ray also pointed out that the initial period of their venture had been very tough, but the group has introduced inter-cropping to achieve greater yield on the farm, besides pisciculture, which gives them an additional income from the community water tank, which is spread over one hectare nearby.

Even though the group is quite enthusiastic, they are struggling to reap the fruits of their labour. They obviously expect help from the state administration to earn a decent living.

Though Panchajyoti Krishak Goat, a cooperative group of former militants, is still struggling in search of a bigger market for their produce, they have succeeded in exporting about 15 quintals of organic produce to Dubai.

It is significant that the separatist movements have not only caused much damage to Assam since 1980s but have also made the state suffer a huge economic loss. The situation has resulted in more than 20,000 deaths in the past decades. However, the same forces have now ushered in the papaya revolution, changing lives of former militants and  helping them become self-reliant.