Selling skills make figs sweeter

Dutta Ghule, a graduate in agriculture, combined traditional knowledge of farming with education and technical know-how to become a major fig producer and supplier in the state. Through him, figs from Pune have reached almost all major cities of the country.

Maharashtra ranks first in the country in fig production and the fruit supplied out of the state is mostly through traders and middlemen. Not many producers have ventured into direct supply.

When Ghule graduated in 1998, he was all prepared for experiments in farming. The family has been into agriculture for many years. However, he realised that middlemen exploited both farmers and consumers. He thus started a new venture to take his produce directly to consumers.

The 8 acres in Sortapwadi in Haveli taluka (20 km from Pune), where he today has 1,600 fig trees, was barren when he purchased it six years ago. The family had to fetch water from a source 2km away.

“Then, fig production was confined to particular places in Maharashtra. I decided to go for it. It was a risk as fig is perishable and if the production is high, it does not yield much profit. Besides, there were middlemen to tackle. Therefore I started looking for consumers beyond the local and district market,” said Ghule.

He completed all the formalities for supplying figs to cities like Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. “It had to be sent by air, because the fruit is very delicate and highly perishable and the consumers, particularly in the north, are very keen about fresh figs. It’s very popular though not grown there,” said Ghule.

Ghule supplied figs at Rs125 for 500gm last year, while the local market rate was Rs30 per kg. His production was 40 tonnes last year and 20 tonnes were sent out of the state. However, this year he could not send it to other states as 70% of the produce was destroyed due to unseasonal rain and adverse weather.

Ghule feels that farmers in the state know how to grow, but do not know how to sell and therefore they fall prey to exploitation by traders. “Instead, we should learn the rules of the game and play better,” he said.

He also blames politics in the agriculture produce market committees and traders for exploitation of farmers. If the produce is better next year, he plans to send it abroad. Quality figs from Ghule’s farm are available at the fig festival at Balgandharva Rangmandir till May 6. It is open from 9am to 8pm.