With the rains playing truant and dams running dry, around 10-15 per cent of the grape farmers in Maharashtra may have to contend with no yield this year and are, in fact, struggling to keep their vines alive.

For the remaining, the next two weeks would determine whether the rains will rescue their crop or their yields too would suffer a setback.

The areas most severely affected are parts of the Sangli-Solapur-Osmanabad belt where even the mandatory April pruning has not been done. “There was no pruning done in areas such as Latur, Jat, and parts of Osmanabad due to water shortage. These people are in trouble,” an expert who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. “These farmers will get no yield this year,” he observed, placing the number of farmers in this situation at between 10 and 15 per cent of the total.

The segment of farmers whose fate still hangs in the balance are those from the hitherto water-rich Nashik zone, where the drying up of dams has created an unprecedented water scarcity.

Though rains have been delayed in the Nashik region for the last two years, they arrived nevertheless, and the acute condition this year is frightening as they have never experienced it before.

The predicament of farmers in some parts of the Sangli-Solapur belt, is similar, but with a difference. The perennial water shortage has fostered an irrigate-using-tankers culture, and many own water tankers which ferry water from dams. “Dams around these regions are bone-dry, so irrigation is not an option now,” the expert said, adding that the resulting salinity would create further problems.

With around two lakh acres under cultivation, Maharashtra produces over 90 per cent of the country’s grapes. Nashik, Sangli, Solapur and Pune are the major grape-producing zones. The season stretches from October to April, and the total production of fruit in the State stood at around 15 lakh tonnes last year.

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