Dr. Havinal prevents damage by anticipating the rain

When he knew that it would rain in the next two days by consulting the weather office, Dr. Changonda Havinale of Solapur immediately began covering his two-and-a-half acre orchard with plastic sheets. As soon as the job was over, the vineyard was pelted with heavy rain for half an hour. Even though a lot of rainwater had collected on the ground, he said it was worth it because he had prevented no less than 15 lakh rupees’ worth of damage, because he had managed to save grapes which were in the final stage of maturing.

“Many people in this region lost mature crops because of the hailstorm last month. In this situation, there was no alternative but to cover the garden. This may go some way towards preventing damage.”
Sahebrao Purkar, farmer, Dhondgavhan, Tal. Chandwad, Dist. Nashik.

Dhondgavhan, Dist. Nashik: On Wednesday (Dec. 31) Sahebrao Purkar covered his vineyard with plastic to protect it from the rain.

“As soon as I received the correct weather forecast, I covered the vineyard with plastic sheets. If I hadn’t put the sheets down and all that rain had hit the grapes, it would have caused losses of up to 70 per cent. Every year, I receive an income of 15 to 17 lakh rupees from this vineyard, which would have been lost. This has stopped the rain from destroying the mature crop. This was a good learning experience.”
Dr. Changonda Havinale, Regional President, State Grape Producers Association, Solapur Region.