Famous Hyderabad grape gardens on verge of extinction, steep decline in crop
Hyderabad grape gardens shrunk from 10,000 acres to just 750 acres. The extent has come down because of real estate explosion.
- City News
A Saye Sekhar- Updated On:19 March 2024 1:08 PM GMT
HYDERABAD: Hyderabadi grapes have a history. Grape gardens on the outskirts of the City have been famous for several decades. But all of them have vanished over the years with the growth of the city in all directions.
An enthusiast who runs the handle, :Hi Secunderabad”, posted on social media platform “X” about the grapes of Hyderabad. The thread ran into five posts with brief facts.
“Do you know that Hyderabad is one of the foremost viticultural centres of our country? The Grape Research Station, Rajendra Nagar, caters to the needs of grape growers of Telangana.
“The research institute does scientific research on evaluation of varieties, hybrids and viable agro-techniques.
“Grapes used to be grown on around 10,000 acres across the State in the 1990s which over a period (of time) reduced by 50 percent.” The extent of grape gardens has further shrunken to a niggardly 750 acres now.
Hyderabad had once created a world record in grape production of 42 tons of “Anab-e-Shahi” per acre (105 metric tonnes/hectare) in 1969. This was considered a spectacular yield and a biological wonder by Dr H P Olmo, a renowned Viticulture Scientist of the world.
Later, the seedless grape variety of Thomson grapes became popular and its multiple mutations have become popular like Manikchaman, Sonka, ‘Tash-e-Ganesh’ and Sharad became popular.
Most of the current day Yapral, Kompally, Medchal, Shamirpet and surrounding areas were once home to several vineyards. While some still exist, most of them have vanished as the lure of real estate lucre was quite enticing for entrepreneurs.
Multiple real estate ventures on the outskirts and even IT companies and skyscrapers have come up. The grape gardens are grown in Ranga Reddy district, Medak, Siddipet, Medchal, Mahbubnagar, Wanaprthy, and Jogulamba Gadwal, and the city.
In fact, several celebrities like Akkineni Nagewsara Rao and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had grape gardens around the city.
With rapid urbanisation and ever-increasing real estate, the farmers/land owners choice naturally drifted towards that and the grape gardens fell prey to that. Most growers question their viability in the industry.
According to reports, the extent has dropped to 130 acres in Ranga Reddy district which was a haven for grape gardens.
Recently, The Grape Research Station in the PJTS Agricultural University organised a show to educate the grape farmers on the multiple varieties and the techniques in growing them.
