Bijapur grape growers in dire straits

Bijapur, once famous for its sweet grapes is now better known for the bitter taste they give the growers. The grape growers, who minted money in the past, are now in dire straits.

Bijapur has about 25,000 acres under grape cultivation. While the average yield per acre remains the same, the cost of production has gone up four-fold leaving growers a worried lot.

"The cost of production is not less than Rs 3 lakh per acre and the grower has to wait for three years to get back the investment. If something goes wrong in the meantime, the farmer is in soup," said a grower.

The growers are forced to depend on borewells and canals as the water table has fallen considerably. A continuous drought has added to the woes of the cultivators. The farmers grow export quality grapes but are not known to be skilled in marketing their produce. The middlemen squeeze the hapless growers.

Prakash Gani, a leading grape grower feels that the farmers should change the method of cultivation and should adopt cost-saving techniques. He says they should study the techniques of making dry grapes. Last year, 20 containers of grapes were exported from the district but the farmers did not benefit much with middlemen gainig the most.

President of Karnataka Grape Growers' Association B M Kokare said several schemes launched by the government to encourage grape growers were good but had not been implemented due to the official apathy.

There has been a demand to declare Bijapur a 'horticulture district' but this has remained unfulfilled. The district is yet to be called an agro-export zone and the state wine policy is yet to be formulated.

The National Horticulture Mission and National Horticulture Board schemes have been implemented in the district but they have not been successful in rescuing the farmers.

It was Babanagar Kulkarni family, was the first one to venture into grape cultivation in the district in the '80s. The family used to grow grapes on 22 acres in its native Babanagar village but now it has fell to only two acres. Jawahar Kulkarni said though the grape cultivation has spread over to other places in the district, the yield per acre had come down drastically.

The farmers are looking forward to the state government to help them in marketing grapes.