ABSTRACT
Pineapple (Ananas comosus (L.) Merr.) is considered to be one of the most important fruit crop of the world. Total annual world production is estimated at 14.6 million tons of fruits. India is the fifth largest producer of pineapple with an annual output of about 1.2 million tons (2013–2014).
In India, pineapple is a very popular fruit crop. The important pineapple producing states are Assam, Kerala, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Mizoram. It is well 286established that pineapple is a major agroproduct in almost all the states in northeastern India. India produces overall 1736.74 thousand MT (2013–2014) of pineapple, while the northeastern states (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Tripura) produce 947.19 thousand MT (2013–14), i.e., more than 50% of the total Indian production; even the area under production counts to 70.01 thousand ha, which is nearly 64% (approx.) of total Indian coverage of 109.88 thousand ha (2013–2014). Thus, research and analysis on pineapple statistics in the context of sustainable economic development of northeastern states are very much relevant. The present paper includes a study on statistical information on pineapple for each of the northeastern states of India. However, the area and production of the states are not much smooth over the time periods due to variations in climatic parameters, especially rainfall. Segmented or piecewise regression analysis has been done, and the models are fitted to overcome the problem of interrupted time series data of pineapple. Such segmented regression analysis can be used to develop sustainable policies for improvement and overall development of entire northeastern parts of the country.
