Farmer Arun Mandal is a progressive farmer, residing in Fasideva, Bidhannagar, Darjeeling district. The Bidhannagar area is famous for cultivation of pineapple in and out of the state. However, this farmer did not stop at just cultivating crops from this famous region, but through his progressive work with indomitable will, he has made a name for himself all over the state today. With the help of NIRJAFT, he has made clothes from pineapple leaf fibres.
He achieved various awards at the national level. Got National Award for agriculture in the name of Innovative Farmer Award -2018 from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi & Innovative Farmer Award during National Conference on “Improving Income of Farmers through Agriculture and Aquaculture through Development Interventions” on 5th – 7th January 2018 Organised by Society of Krishi Vigyan, at ICAR-CIFA, Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
After that again he achieved Best oral Presentation on “National Seminar on Integrated Approaches in Horticulture for Sustainable Development” organized at Palli Siksha Bhavana (Institute of Agriculture), Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan, West Bengal.
Best Oral Presentation Award for Presenting the Paper entitled Pineapple Honey: Farmer's Experience in the International Symposium on Sustainable Horticulture 2016, Mizoram University, Aizawl, India on 14th - 16th March, 2016.
In 2002, he established North Bengal Pineapple Growers’ Association. After this he took initiative on the year of 2006 & organized Pineapple Festival at Bidhannagr. He visited Assam & Meghalaya for surveying the pineapple cultivation status. In 2013 he Visited Pineapple Research Station, Kerala Agricultural University for gaining technical knowledge on pineapple and collection of Germplasm like Mauritius, MD-2, MTS, T-3, Amritha, Ornamental Pineapple. First time efforts for commercial Mauritius and Queen Pineapple cultivation in West Bengal & production of Pineapple Honey bee rearing bees, one of the innovative idea of him.
His sole aim is to give pineapple cultivation in Siliguri a unique dimension in the world and to help the unemployed youth thereby providing employment & help local farmers for their betterment.