He has started a nursery to sell the grafts of his seedless grape varieties and is also involved in producing and selling black raisins prepared from the Sarita and Nanasaheb Purple Seedless varieties. I monitored it closely for three years and realised the clone was different and distinctive from the rest.”Ī progressive grape grower who discontinued his education after his Class 12, Kale has followed the footsteps of his father and owns 25 acres of vineyards and grows various varieties developed by his family. Reminiscing about his first innovation, Kale says, “I observed that bunches in one particular clone of Sharad Seedless vine had many bigger-sized berries. Ten years later, Dattaraya, then 31, launched Sharad Seedless, a black variety which is one of the top varieties grown in India and followed it in 2004 by introducing Sarita Seedless - named after his mother. The variety opened new markets, like China and HK to Indian grape growers.
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Widely popular in the domestic market, it created history and inspired many new grape varieties. It all began in 1980, when Dattatraya’s father, Nanasaheb, considered a pioneer in grape farming, introduced Sonaka Seedless, arguably the country’s first elongated green grape. Kale’s Sonaka Farms in Nanaj, spread over 25 acres, has so far developed six unique varieties of grapes. Its closest rival is Super Sonaka, a white-coloured table grape that reaches a length of 25mm. Its size is relatively big considering the berry length of those produced in India that vary between 12mm to 20mm. An elongated variety, which is black and purple in colour has an astounding berry length of 45-50mm and width (berry diameter) of 24-25mm, making it suitable for making premium raisins. The 56-year-old’s latest variety called King Berry, launched this February, has attracted a lot of attention due to its size. Most of them have found acceptance not among growers in their home state but also among those in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. However, Dattaraya N Kale of Solapur stands apart having developed five new varieties over the years. It helps track all the details of the consignment, right down to the location of the vineyards, record of all the processes involved which can be traced by international customers at the end of the chain to validate the authenticity and quality of the grapes.
Solapur ganesh festival software#
Most growers in the State are members of GrapeNet, a web-based certification and traceability software system which monitors fresh grapes exported from India to the European Union.
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Varieties developed by Pune-based ICAR-National Research Centre for Grapes, namely Manjari Shyama, Manjari Naveen and Manjari Medika too are cultivated by scores of farmers. Other varieties grown include Red Globe, Krishna Seedless, Sharad Seedless, Fantasy Seedless, Crimson Seedless etc. Among the earliest farmer breeder varieties is Tas Ganesh, developed by Subash Arve ( 1970), followed by Solapur’s Manik Chaman by T R Dabade (1982), Maruti Seedless by Sangli’s Maruti Ramchandra Mali (1994), Mahadev Seedless by Solapur’s Gausmohammed Saipan Shaikh (2007) and Sudhakar Seedless by Nashik’s Sudhakar Kshirsagar ( 2019).
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Over the years, varieties from the Vitis Vinifera have attracted the attention of farmer breeders and so far there are around a dozen new varieties developed by farmers belonging to the grape-growing belt of Maharashtra. Developing new grape varieties has become a common practice among farmers of the grape growing belt in Maharashtra.