A mango twist in the tale

Jawher (Thane), April 24: At Vanwasi village in Jawher Municipal Corporation, 90 km from Nashik, farmer Mohan Kirkire is expecting a two-tonne mango harvest from his plantation. If his mangoes touch 250 gm in weight each, they will be sent for exports, which will add an additional 20 per cent to his annual income.

A decade ago things were different. Mangoes were a treat in Jawher, procured from other towns. But now not only does Jawher grow its own mangoes, it even sends some abroad. This May, it will export about 100 tonne mangoes.

The mangoes have planted a whole new story in the Jawher block, 80 km from the Gujarat border and 110 km from Thane city. A decade ago Jawher was struggling with poverty. In 1991, 46 children died of malnutrition here. That prompted governmental and non-governmental intervention, which has finally brought a fair degree of prosperity to this tribal area.

“In 1997, I brought one acre of land (wadi) under horticulture with 20 mango, 30 cashew, 10 guava and 500 forestry plants,” says Kirkire, 34. Between him and his brothers, they own five acres.

“Before that, we harvested two bags of finger millet and about five to six bags of paddy each year. We would get Rs 3,000 per acre for the millet and Rs 2,000 for the paddy,” he says. With an annual income of Rs 10,000, Kirkire had planned to migrate to Thane city to work as a labourer during the non-agricultural seasons. But he no longer needs to do that.

In 1993, Government funding helped the Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF) intervene in the aftermath of the malnutrition deaths. The BAIF initiated the wadi concept of three-tier agriculture—forestry at the boundaries, followed by horticulture (mid-term investment) and paddy, millet or vegetables (for immediate income) at the centre. It brought 1,000 families under the wadi plan and in 1997, through European Union funding, it added another 2,400 families to its scheme.

“We have close to 3,400 families in 40 villages (out of the 107 villages of Jawhar block) who are into production. To take it beyond production to retail, we tied up with USAID to help with exports,” says Deepak Patil, technical advisor of BAIF, in charge of this Growth Oriented Micro Enterprise Development project funded by US Agency for International Development.

The farmers here will sell their crop to the cooperative they have formed, which has tied up with retail chains for exports.

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