Vijayapura: 1st exhibition-cum-sale of District grapes from Feb 16 | Azad Times

Vijayapura: Despite grape being one of the prominent horticulture crops and the District cultivates it in the highest quantity in the State, the farmers have often complained of a lack of marketing facilities in the District.

In order to address this issue and provide a direct link between the growers and the buyers, the Zilla Panchayat and the District Horticulture Department has, for the first time, decided to hold an exhibition cum sale of different varieties of grapes of the district.

The five-day event will start on February 16 at the premises of the Horticulture Department near the District Stadium. The exhibition and sale will remain open between 11.00 am and 6.00 pm.

“This is the first of its kind initiative we have taken in order to facilitate the farmers of the District in getting the buyers. We will be providing stalls to the sellers where the farmers can bring their produce and sell to the potential buyers,” said ZP CEO Rahul Shinde. He said that they have discussed with the farmers to sell the grapes at lower rates compared to the market so that it will help the buyers and the sellers.

He informed that in order to make the branding of the grape which has been a lacuna of the farmers, the ZP has got around 15,000 boxes of 2 kgs and 4 kgs each. On the boxes, it has been printed in Kannada ‘Namma Vijayapura Drakshi’ (the grapes of our Vijayapura).

“This is also the first attempt to give branding to the grapes as no such branding was available for this fruit in the market,” he said.

Informing that while grape is cultivated on 32473-hectare land in the State, in Bijapur alone, the crop is cultivated on 20911 hectares. Of the total production, around 90 per cent goes into making raisins while only ten per cent is used for direct consumption which is around 52,000 tonnes. The total grape production of the District is around 1,17,624 tonnes, he noted.

The farmers of the District cultivate around 12 varieties of grape which includes Thompson Seedless, Manik Chaman, Sonaka, SSN, Anushka, Sharad Seedless, Krishan Seedless and Jyoti etc.

“However during the exhibition, the farmers are expected to bring around five popular varieties to sell,” he said.

Besides grapes, the stall will also be selling raisins for raisin lovers.

“Since the exhibition is being held on account of Mahashivaratri where Hindus buy other fruits also, the exhibition will have sellers who would be selling fruits such as musk melon, watermelon etc.

Besides the Horticulture Office premises, the stall would be set up in four different places in the City to facilitate the buyers. The area includes, near Godavari Hotel on Athani road, near Siddeshwara Temple, near Gandhi Circle and BLDE Engineering College.

Deputy Director of the Department, and C. S. Baragimath were also present.