Once well-off, grape farmers now face an uphill task

It is difficult to resist a visit to the Sula vineyards while driving through the outskirts of Nasik. Surrounded by hills and a lake on one side, the 35-acre-vineyard is scenic. But a moment of attention to the farm, and the detailing strikes out. The distance between each row in the vineyard is precisely 4.5 feet. The height of every vine is 3.5 feet so the shadow of one does not fall on the other. Rose plants are seen flourishing around the vines, not to augment the aesthetic value, but to work as an indicator. Being more vulnerable, a disease would affect rose plants prior to the vines, enabling farmers to conduct proactive measures, to keep the vineyards safe.

Cultivators look after the vineyard like a parent looking after a newborn, because “80% credit of the wine goes to the grapes”, says Vinayak Nehe, farm manager and a founder member of Sula vineyards. “It is possible to make bad wine from good grapes, but impossible to make good wine from bad grapes. The grapes have to be perfectly ripe,” he says.

Twenty-five percent of Sula’s grapes are cultivated under their own watch, while the remaining amount is bought from farmers. However, as the importance of grapes sees an upward surge, many grape cultivators have second thoughts about pursuing it. With the weather getting more and more unreliable in the past four-five years, once well-off grape farmers are now facing an uphill task. A few minutes of untimely downpour or even a small hailstorm has the potential to completely devour the meticulously managed farm. Excessive rains also spread the botrytis fungus, destroying the vineyards. “We keep an eye on the weather like a broker keeps an eye on the share market”, says Rahul Medhane, a grape farmer from Nasik and a victim of the recent hailstorm. “The hailstorm in February was so powerful that it destroyed 95% of my grapes,” he says. 

October to December is the pruning period in the vineyard. The next three months are reserved for harvesting. Around mid-April, the new cycle begins. The crop insists on the weather being impeccable throughout those six months, which has now become an unreasonable demand.

This year’s hailstorm was the third in as many years. The hail forces cracks into the grapes, rendering them absolutely worthless. This has had a severe impact on exports as well. “Last year we exported 192000 metric tons of grapes”, says Jagannath Khapre, a grape exporter. “This year it has been reduced to half. And the quality of the available ones has also taken a hit”.

Nilesh Jondhale, an agriculture expert, says the local export to other states has been a letdown this year. “The durability of grapes was not enough to survive the test of time,” he says. “The grapes corrupted in days after reaching states where transit takes a few days, thereby decreasing their local rate,” he said. However, the production cost of grapes does not allow farmers to sell them below a certain price. “The investment itself is Rs 5-6 lakhs,” says Medhane. “It takes two years until regular income starts. Apart from this, every year the expenditure is around Rs 5 lakh and if the weather permits, we normally end up making yearly profit of about Rs 2-3 lakhs. But the last three years have not allowed any profit whatsoever,” Jondhale says. 

Many farmers had to clear off their stock at Rs 10 per kilo, which would normally be sold at Rs 60-70. Experts say that the unsustainable monetary losses have compelled grape cultivators to move towards growing raisins and vegetables, which are relatively less dependent on the environment. “Under normal circumstances, 16 tonnes of grapes are incurred from one acre of land,” says Jondhale. “This year, only seven tonnes were fetched, on an average, per acre. And 70% of them were corruptible,” he said.

The impact of seasonal losses has been stark. “Most of the grape farmers adopt drip irrigation,” says Ashok Gaikwad of the grape association. “When I spoke to an irrigator in Nasik, he said he had irrigated 62 vineyards last year. The number has come down to 18 this year.” Further, the cost of one grape plant at a nursery has come down to Rs 5-7 from Rs 16-18 due to lack of demand.

Nehe says the fluctuating temperature too, plays a role in the demand. “If the temperature decreases in the north, the demand goes down,” he says. “The fact that the outcome of the crop depends on such varied factors proves to be a tremendous mental stress on the farmer, forcing him to look out for other options”.      

In 2002-03, wine making had not taken off at a magnitude it has today. “At that time, the weather used to be pretty consistent. The quantity of grapes exceeded the demand,” says Jondhale. “Today, however, the demand of grapes is in the ascendancy, but the grape cultivators are steadily throwing in the towel,” he says.