INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURE
The district Pilibhit has an agriculture-based economy. It has very fertile land, but little industry, and has no mineral extraction area. The industry in the district is mainly based on agriculture. Since the main crop in this area is sugarcane, there are four sugar factories at Majhola, Puranpur, Bisalpur and Pilibhit. Three factories are in co-operative sector and one at Pilibhit is in private sector. The Lalit Hari Sugar Factory is the largest among them. In 2005-06, the Bajaj Industry opened with Bajaj Hindustan Sugar Factory Ltd, in Barkhera area of the district. The district also has a few cottage industries, including wooden or bamboo flute manufacturing, engineering units, brick klins, candles and zari work. The flutes made in Pilibhit have a big international demand. These flutes are exported to the United States, Europe, Japan, Canada, UAE and African countries. Other major units are three solvent plants, four flour mills, one steel plant (a few kilometres from the city) and one alcohol distillery in Majhola town. According to an article published in Hindustan Times, by a 1991 estimate, 95% of India's flutes were manufectured in Pilibhit. The craftmen were used to source its bamboo from Barak Valley in Assam. Earlier, there was an unbroken narrow-gauge line running from Silchar, in Assam, via Bihar, and into Pilibhit. On this line, 60-strong bundles of bamboo, each stalk 10 ft long, used to make their way to Pilibhit, but around 15 years ago, sections of that line were removed. Now, the bamboo has to travel on narrow gauge from Silchar to Jiribum, then shift onto a broad-gauge line to travel to Bareilly, the nearest big town, and then reloaded onto narrow gauge to come into Pilibhit.
The main crops of Pilibhit are sugarcane, rice, wheat, pulse, food grains, mustard and oil seeds, which depend upon the seasons. District Pilibhit supplies a large
