The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Discipline, planning and enterprise will help tide over agrarian crisis’

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Wednesday, Jul 09, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Discipline, planning and enterprise will help tide over agrarian crisis’

B.S. Satish Kumar

Agriculture is a highly scientific field, says viticulturist B. Gopal

— PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

‘GRAPE MAN’: Viticulturist B. Gopal at a farm.

BANGALORE: “If you want to tackle the agrarian crisis, the first thing you need to understand is that agriculture is a highly scientific field and too technical to be left to the politicians and the bureaucrats,” observes the State’s first viticulturist B. Gopal, who is popularly known as the “grape man”.

Mr. Gopal (81), who has done extensive work as a horticultural official in spreading the area under grape and mango cultivation, says there is always a tendency to underplay the scientific nature of agriculture.

He is not happy with the way the agriculture and the horticulture sectors are being handled now. There is a dearth of staff with thorough scientific knowledge and research experience in these departments. The Agriculture Department’s technical staff should be “as meticulous as a surgeon who operates on patients,” he said. They should have the exact answer to the specific problems of farmers with respect to different crops, notes Mr. Gopal. He popularised grape cultivation in Karnataka in the 1950s and 1960s.

Mr. Gopal had a tough word of advice to farmers too. “They need to be disciplined and enterprising if they want to succeed. They need to plan well within their resources. Such kind of discipline, planning and enterprise was the hallmark of agriculture in the yesteryear,” he notes.

He feels that still it is possible to avoid an agrarian crisis in the State whose weather is ideal for cultivation of various horticultural crops.

“We need to be forward looking. Our neighbours, including Andhra Pradesh, are into large-scale commercial cultivation of orchids. But we have not thought of it, though it is possible to take up orchid cultivation here,” he said.

Mr. Gopal shot to fame with his work on the Vitis vinifera, or white grape, variety. While working in Kemmannugundi, he noticed a grape plant (white grapes) grown in a village panchayat office of Lingadahalli in 1952.

Till then only the blue variety of grapes were grown in the State. He brought some of the cuttings of that plant to Lal Bagh and allowed them to multiply. He persuaded farmers to taste the grape berries to take up grape cultivation.

He set up several demonstration plants and also offered technical assistance to farmers to take up grape cultivation. A particular method of cultivating grapes by using three stone pillars per plant and an iron wire network as roof is known as the “Gopal method”.

The VIPs who sought his advise on growing horticulture or ornamental crops included Sir C.V. Raman, Sir Mirza Ismail and the then King of Nepal.

Mr. Gopal joined the Horticulture Department in 1950 after completing a course in horticulture.

His zeal for his work and innovative flair caught the attention of the then head of the Horticulture Department Mari Gowda who appointed him as the State’s first viticulturist in 1959. Later, he was elevated as special officer in-charge of grapes development.

Such is his relevance to horticulture sector that even 25 years after his retirement, he has been kept busy by farmers who frequently visit him to seek his advise on grape and mango cultivation.

Felicitation

A group of innovative farmers who were benefited by his technical expertise have decided to felicitate Mr. Gopal on the occasion of his 81st birthday in Bangalore on July 15. Dr. M.H. Mari Gowda Horticultural Educational and Research Foundation is planning to organise a lecture by him on farming issues on that day.

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